Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
This is News Radio seven to ten WNTM. Uncle Henry
here with John McNeil and Virginia O'Brien of Mobile Bay
Financial Solutions. You can find Mobile Bay Financial Solutions online
at MB financial Solutions dot com. That's MB financial Solutions
dot com. Telephone number two five to one sixty sixty
(00:28):
six five thousand if you'd like to call and make
an appointment or just call and ask a question. Two
five to one six sixty six five thousand. That is
the number for Mobile Bay Financial Solutions. The commentary presented
herein contains the opinions of Mobile Bay Wealth Management LLC,
a registered investment advisor. This information should not be relied
(00:48):
upon for tax purposes. Is based on sources believed to
be reliable. No guarantee is made to the completeness or
accuracy of this information. Mobile Bay Wealth Management LC shall
not be responsible for any trading decisions, damages, or other
losses resulting from or related to the information, data, analysis,
or opinions contained herein or their use which do not
(01:12):
constitute investment advice. Are provided as of the date written,
are provided solely for informational purposes, and therefore are not
an offer to buy or sell a security. Investments and
securities are subject to investment risk, including possible loss of principle.
Prices of securities may fluctuate from time to time and
may even become valueless. This information has not been tailored
(01:34):
to suit any individual. John McNeil, Virginia, Obrian, how are
things going this week at Mobile Bay Financial Solutions? Well?
Speaker 2 (01:40):
As usual, Uncle Henry, we usually like to start it
off with a little bit of football talk.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Good wowe road time.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Whow we're in football season? Yes, you know, as we
record this today, it is the Tuesday after the Tennessee
games Alabama Tennessee games at which we dominated.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Yes, indeed attended in person thanks to John mcneilan, Virginia, O, Brian.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Yes, and how was it? How was the atmosphere?
Speaker 1 (02:06):
I mean, it was as good as any any of
the atmospheres of games I've been to before. And it's
hard to compare from game to game because I got
to go to a few saving games thanks to you,
But I can't remember a game where it was that
electric the crowd. The crowd was ready before they ever
got on that field.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Yeah, I mean it just looks just I mean it
was just such a and people I don't. I don't
know if you've got a chance to watch or listen
to College Game Day at this past Saturday, but they
were at they asked Saban, what's the most underrated SEC
rivalry and he said Albama Tennessee hands down. He said,
people don't understand people that are in the SEC. SEC
don't understand how much we hate them and how much
(02:46):
they hate us. Yes, you know, it is a true hatred.
You know, Alabama Auburn. Okay, yeah, that's you know LSU Alabama, Yeah, Tennessee.
I mean they're you know, zep and you know now
as we knock on wood, we're ranked number four and
the A people's so and then you know, right in
front of us is Texas A and M who plays
(03:08):
LSU this weekend? Okay in Death Valley and we're I'm
going to be attending that game. Oh oh okay, yes,
disguised as maybe a neutral slash LSU fan. I don't
want to, you know, I don't. I've never wanted to
go as an Alabama fan playing l s U in
Death Valley. That just doesn't seem safe. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Now, what are they are? LSU fans called affectionately corn
dogs corn dogs. You will be you will be an
undercover corn dog.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
I'll be an undercover cornder. Yeah, like a what a
phony corn dog?
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Maybe? Uh pho dog, a pho dog?
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Yes, the tofu of corn dogs, if you will.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Okay, So it's.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
It's gonna be fun. I'm pretty excited. It's a night
game and got announced it's going to be a six
thirty game. Uh, I'm pretty excited about it because that's
supposed to be. Talk about an electric stadium. It's supposed
to be and of course A and M fans are
also known for just being just bringing the heat. So
I think it's going to be a fun game. LSU
is gonna have to really really deliver because they were,
uh you know of Courso called them to be the
(04:06):
national championships at the beginning of the year. Do you
remember that the national champions He called for it. Now,
whether that's gonna hold true, who knows.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
But yes, we'll see.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
I hope that. I think it would be a fun game.
I think it would be great to watch them take
A and M. I don't really have any allegians to
A and M obviously none to LSU, so you know,
we're gonna be with LSU our friends that are LSU fans,
so I'll be cheering for Lsu.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Okay, I just so.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
That I don't get in trouble, you know now, of course,
not necessarily coming from the heart. I don't want you
to think.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
That I'm no, I don't. You're you're being a nice guest.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
You're you're being a nice guest, and you're supporting the hosts.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
That's right, that's right.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
And it sounds like they need all the help they can.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Get, right now, that's right, that's right.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
All right, Well, here we are with John McNeil and
Virginia O'Brien. You can call their office at two five
one six six six five thousand. That's two five one
sixty six six five thousand from Mobile Bay Financial Solutions.
Let's do some financial fables. A subst fables can teach
us lessons about life and money. So I'm going to
read each of you a short fable and then you
(05:08):
tell us the moral of the story as it relates
to financial planning.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
All right, let's do it.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Let's start with the miser and his gold. There was
a miser who used to hide his gold at the
foot of a tree in his garden. Every week he
used to go and dig it up and gloat over
his riches. A robber who had noticed this, went and
dug up the gold and ran off with it. When
the miser came to gloat over his treasures, he found
(05:34):
nothing but the empty hole. He raised such an outcry
that all of the neighbors came to see what was wrong.
He told them how he used to come and visit
his gold. Did you ever take any of it out,
asked one of them. No, he said, I only came
to look at it. Then come over here and look
at the hole, said a neighbor. It will do you
(05:56):
just as much good. So what is the moral of
that fable?
Speaker 2 (06:01):
This master sounds like the Crichton Leprechaun, is what he
sounds like. But you know, wealth unused might as well
not exist. That's kind of the moral of this sort
of how I see it. You know, we we love
having meetings with clients where we say, guys, y'all need
to y'all need to spend some more money. You know, y'all,
we've got plenty of it. We've got plenty of it
that we can spend. Now we can go do the
(06:22):
things that you've always wanted to do. Or we tell people,
you know, they come in they say, oh, I don't
know if I'll ever be able to retire, and we're
we've told we've been able to tell them, you know,
not only can you retire, you can retire now if
you want, you know, making sure that people are you know,
enjoying all the things that they've scrimped and safe for
their whole lives. It's so it's so rewarding for us
(06:43):
to be able to help them, you know, help you know,
tell them that they can go spend it. And that's
that's always rewarding. And some people are a little hesitant
to do that, you know, but that's by having a
plan in place is so important. So yeah, I mean,
just making sure that we tell people all the time.
And Dad says this all the time. You know, you
don't want to be the richest person in the graveyard.
(07:05):
You know, you can't take it with you when you go,
so so anyway, but yeah, we encourage that when it's
you know, obviously when that can be afforded with clients.
But that's something that's really important to us, that make
sure that our clients will be able to enjoy those years.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Here is another fable. This one is the tortoise in
the hair.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Everybody's familiar with the tortoise and the hair.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
The hair was once boasting of his speed in front
of the other animals. I've never yet been beaten, he said,
I challenge anyone here to race with me. The tortoise
said quietly, I accept your challenge. That's a good joke,
said the hair. I could run circles around you. The
(07:45):
tortoise said, simply, shall we race? So a course was
made and the race began. The hair darted almost out
of sight immediately, but soon stopped, and, in order to
show off, lay down to have a nap. The tortoise
plotted on and plotted on, and when the hair awoke
(08:05):
from his nap, he saw the tortoise just near the
finish line and couldn't catch up in time to win
the race. So, John, may you know what's the moral
of this story?
Speaker 3 (08:15):
Well, you know, of course, everybody knows. The moral of
story is that slow and steady wins the race, right right.
I mean, you don't become wealthy overnight unless you're very lucky,
Like I talked to my sister in Pensacola. She bought
a lottery ticket today, so I'm looking forward to like
I think she said, eight hundred and sixty million dollars.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
That'd be nice. That'd be nice, you know.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
So I had a reminder that after taxes, we only
get about three hundred and eighty thousand dollars. Three hundred
eighty million dollars. She said, that'll do. But the slow
and steady does win the race, which means we when
we put together a plan, we remind people that we
divide monies up into three different categories, you know, the
(08:58):
short term money, medium term money, long term money, as
we like to refer to it as the go go money,
the slow go money, and the no go money. So
we divide things up to say, we need income now,
and that's where we invest those buckets to provide income
now shortly after retirement.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
And then the medium term is when we you know,
slow down a little bit and maybe not spending as
much money every day as it's still a Saturday, but
we're still we're we're not going to low three or
four times a week and we're only going once a week.
And then of course the Nogo years where we've become
you know, maybe infirmed or you know, having to spend
money to on healthcare rather than on fun stuff, which
(09:43):
is not fun to think about. But we build into
our plan to make sure people realize what we're doing.
So when we're designing the portfolio, Slow and Steady, we
don't want to look at the weekly or monthly ups
and downs of the market. We want to look at
the long term goals. What are we trying to accomplish
and how are we going to get there. Slow and
Steady wins the race. Virginia uses a lot of football
(10:05):
analogies women making presentations to our clients and and talk
about offense and defense. You know, you put the offense
on the field to score points, right. You put the
defense on the on the field to keep the offense
from scoring against you, right, But the defense can also
score points. Look at this past weekend, you saw it
picked six nine nine yards run favorite play. Yeah, the
(10:28):
defense can win. So we designed portfolios where we can
win with the defense and really, you know, try to
do a little bit better with the offense on the
on the portfolio. We just want to prepare against any
kind of a downturn since we're as we see here today,
we're at all time highs yet again this year in
the market SMP, Dow NASDAK Russell two thousand. Oil is down,
(10:52):
gold is way up, Silver's way up. There are a
lot of things that are changing in the market as
we speak today, and as we sit down with our
clients every day, every week, every quarter, every year, things change,
and we want to make sure we can change our
plan so that we can show them that slow and steady.
When we say slow, we're not talking about bearing money
(11:13):
in the backyard. We're not talking about, you know, just
not doing anything. We want to make sure we have
all of our money working with us. We have so
many people uncle hear that come in and say, you know,
when we first talk with them, they've got, you know,
hundreds of thousand dollars sitting in the bank earning point
zero four percent. That doesn't make any sense. You don't
need that kind of money. You can go get today.
(11:36):
Let's if you can get it within twenty four hours,
you'll be okay. So we can increase that rate of
return tenfold just sitting in money market accounts that are
paying a higher interest rate. So we want to show
them that slow and steady wins the race, and we
go year to year now for almost one hundred and
four years here at Mobile Bay Financial which is a
(11:59):
pretty accomplishment that both Virginia and I are very proud
of as her great grandfather, her grandfather, me and now
her are making sure there are clients understand what is
entailed in putting together a plan.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
You're listening to John mcneilan Virginia Brian of Mobile Bay
Financial Solutions. Their website is mbfinancial Solutions dot com. That's
mbfinancial Solutions dot com. The number to call is two
five to one six sixty six five thousand. That's two
five to one sixty six six five thousand for Mobile
Bay Financial Solutions. So let's talk about tough conversations. Sometimes
(12:38):
being a good advisor means having uncomfortable conversations. So tell
the listeners how you've helped some people navigate some of
these tricky conversations. So let's start with, how does the
death of the first spouse affect the financial plan?
Speaker 2 (12:55):
You know, this is something we talk about a lot.
We try to talk about this with mary couples before
it happened, well, before it happens, well, they're still very healthy.
So that they know, so that that that if there
is a spouse that passes away, that the other spouse
knows what that looks like. Financially. Of course, this has
a lot of a lot of different variables. You know,
(13:16):
how old is somebody, how old is that first spouse
when they pass away. Unfortunately, we had a family friend
whoass away at the age of thirty eight, who was
married with small kids. So it's that's a totally different
ballgame trying to prepare for that than it is. You know,
if a sixty five year old passes away, the kids
are out of the house and that kind of thing,
but still can leave a lot of gaps. So it's
something that's one of the biggest variables that we have
(13:38):
and planning is how long are you going to live
and when is the first person? When is the first
of the two going to pass away. It affects not
just you know, people think, oh, well, if one of
the spouse has passes away, I'm gonna need half the
income because it's going to take it's just one person,
not too but that's not how it works because if
you still have a mortgage, your mortgage doesn't cut in half.
(13:59):
You know, most of the time, your power bill, your
water bill doesn't really change much. So there's different things.
And what people don't really don't realize until it happens
to them is your taxes are totally different, uh, when
it's just one person not married filing jointly. So that's
another thing. So that's something that can be truly devastating
(14:20):
to a plan because it all depends on you know,
if they have a pension, traditional pension, what does that
survivor benefit look like? Is is there one? Or did
they did they use a strategy called pension maximization to
be able to maximize that as far as that's concerned.
But it's one of those things we try to have
these conversations with people way before it happens so that
(14:44):
they're not in total shock and devastation when it does happen.
One of the things that's really hard for us is
when we take on a new client as they're they
are widowed or a widower, because there's already so much
emotion with money, and then you have the added emotional
stress of losing a loved one arguably probably the most
(15:04):
important loved one in your life, and so that just
just so overwhelming. For people, it's almost just like, you know, paralyzing,
and it's something that we try to have that conversation with.
We were actually going through the scenario with a very young,
healthy couple the other day that we're coming in coming
on as new clients, talking about, okay, well this scenario,
what if the husband passes away at age seventy five
(15:26):
and the wife started tearing up. I mean, he's totally healthy.
They're like not even sixty yet. You know, we're just
going through the scenarios and she started tearing up and
I said, oh no, I don't you know, it's just
it's just a scenario. And he was like, y'all are
gonna make her crash. He does not like talking about this,
and I said, I know, it can be really tough
to talk about. It really can. But the reason that
we do talk about it is because you know, statistically,
(15:49):
females are gonna outlive males, and she's a little bit
younger than him, and you know, that's we want to
make sure that you're okay. She says, no, I understand. I'm glad,
you know, but it is hard to talk about. It's tough,
and that's thing that can really be one of the
biggest things that it can wreck a financial plan if
it's not planned for properly.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
All right, So how do you help people navigate this
tricky conversation what happens if nursing home care is needed?
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Uncle Henry. Unfortunately, there are three of us sitting at
this table right now. Two of us are going to
need long term care before we die. That's the sixty
six percent of the people. So when we look at that,
it can be devastating to a plan. That's why we
build it into our retirement dream catcher, compensating having buckets
(16:37):
of money positioned to take care of long term care
somewhere down the road, because the probability is it's going
to happen. When you look at a husband and wife,
they have a house, they don't have any mortgage, they
don't have any debt, they've got good income. But then
all of a sudden, one of them has to go
into a nursing home or have help at home, and
you're looking at another between eighty and one hundred thousand
(17:00):
dollars a year that they've got to have to pay
for that care. The expenses, the other expenses don't change
like Forrginia said earlier. You still have the house expenses,
may not have a mortgage. May you may have a mortgage,
you may have a cart or two. But we've got
to prepare for that and talking to them about it.
They usually understand that better than losing a spouse because
(17:23):
they've probably had to do it with a sibling or
a parent. They've had to, you know, take care of
them in a nursing home or at home care, and
it can be very expensive. If you don't prepare for it,
it can devastate an a state, or the whole family situation.
So we talk about it and they really do grasp it.
(17:45):
That's one of the things they say when we first
meet with people, asking them questions, how are you going
to pay for long term care? Well, you know, we'll
move in with the kids or something. That's not a plan,
that's a hope and a wish. You've got a plan
for this type stuff, not only financially, but legally. Need
to make sure all legal documents are in place, and
(18:06):
we we do all that, document all that and have
all that in their file.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Here's another one, another tricky conversation. How do you help
people navigate the conversation of do we need to keep
working longer than we'd planned.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Yeah, this is something that can that can come up.
You know, again, there's lots of variables that go into
retirement planning and lots of variables that are out of
anybody's control, and so there's things that come up that
you know, weren't you know, having to do that. For instance,
of supporting grandkids. You know that we've had that incense
happened where that really can it can be a really
(18:46):
determining factor on that supporting. We had a client that
there they were having to support their one of their
kids who became ill and having to do that, you know.
So it's it's it's lots of different things with that
that come into play, and that can be something that
is detrimental because it's it's fixed and you know, when
you get to retirement, you're looking at fixed income and
(19:07):
there's not a lot of big you know, we can't
take depending on what the retirement budget is, we can't
take huge chunks of money all the time. And we
also don't want to put a huge strain on the
assets too early on because we don't know how long
you know, you're going to live, So that's something that
can come into play, having to keep working it certainly,
it certainly can.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Here is another tricky conversation to have. How do you people?
How do you help people navigate this one? Do our
children understand our estate plan and how they fit into it?
If at all? You know?
Speaker 3 (19:41):
We encourage our clients, especially our senior clients, to involve
the family, if not the whole family, at least whoever
is named in their will as the executor. Usually a
husband and wife have a will and they're each other's executors,
are exectrics of each other's wills. But what happens when
(20:04):
there's only one left and they die, who's going to
be doing all this? It's gonna be one of the
kids usually, and every family has the wayward children and
their favorite child or the one that's more responsible.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
This name.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
We want that person involved with where mom and dad's assets?
What are they Who do they need to call if
something happens and we need some money? So that's very important.
Some people don't want their kids to know what they've got,
and that's unfortunate because it's gonna be a surprise to
them when that time comes.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
Okay, final tricky conversation. How do you help people navigate
this one? How do we separate from an advisor who
we like as a person but we now realize isn't
a good fit for us, or maybe was never a
good fit for us.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
You know, we've had to deal with this with some
clients before they asked for our you know, they've come
to see us to get you know, second o pin
or just you know, to look at everything, and they
realize that they would you know that we do holistic
planning and that kind of thing, and maybe their advisor
really isn't doing all of that, and so, you know,
(21:14):
those can be tough conversations to have for the for
the client, and you know, but it's a it's a
it's kind of a case back case thing because sometimes
it's it can be that they're friends with them, and
you know, trying to navigate that can be can be hard.
But it's one of those things when it comes down
to it, some people say, you know, what got you
(21:36):
here won't get you there, meaning they've done a really
great job for a lot of years getting you to
those retirement years, and now when it comes into retirement,
it's it's a totally different ballgame, you know, so it
can be something that's a totally different set of rules,
a totally different set of a totally different plan, that
kind of thing. And that's something that we, you know,
talk to clients a lot about.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
All Right, we're almost out of time, but would you
like to answer an email before we go? Sure if
you would like to email a question into John mcneilan,
Virginia O'Brian. The email address is info at mobifs dot com.
That's info at mobifs dot com and Jack writes in
here from Mobile, Alabama. Jack's email reads, I can't wait
(22:17):
to retire from a job, but I have a constant
fear of the markets having a big crash the week
after I leave the workforce, and a recession or depression
in my early years of retirement that are hard to
come back from. How do I overcome these fears?
Speaker 3 (22:33):
You don't clearing. We say this a lot, but it
comes down to having a plan. When when we sit
down with clients in our first, second, and third meeting
before we ever before they evercome clients, we have three
meetings and we explain and educate them on what we're
going to do, what we're recommending and how that's going
to work, and how that's going to protect you to
(22:55):
some degree over like he says, a recession depression. We
want to make sure we've money's protected that no matter
what happens in the market, we're going to be okay
as long as they're following the plan. And if they're
if they're having those kind of concerns, that means that
what they're doing right now, they don't understand what they're doing.
(23:16):
Nobody's ever explained to them, how they're invested, what kind
of risk they're taking, what happens if the if the
market does take a big downturn. We run everybody's if
they come to us as a new client, we take
their current portfolio and run it through a stress test
and says, what happens if we have another two thousand
and eight or another two thousand and two where markets
were devastated, how would their current portfolio work in that
(23:41):
scenario compared to what we're recommending, and what would happen
at that particular point. So educating our clients is a
big deal. We get we get accused all the time
of too much information, information overload. That's why we do
a three meeting process before they ever become clients, and
then we'll do four more before all the dust settles,
(24:02):
so they know exactly where they are and they don't
worry about if they wake up one morning and you
know Putin has done something, or you know we've we've
sunk another submarine off of Venezuela full of drugs. Yes,
you know, those type things get people concerned overnight. So
we want to educate, educate, educate, and they really appreciate
it and feel comfortable with it.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
All right, we're at a time. You can call John
and Virginia at Mobile Bay Financial Solutions at two five
one six six six five thousand. That's two five one
six six six five thousand for Mobile Bay Financial Solutions.
John McNeil, Virginia O'Brien, thank you, and roll TIMEE Roll
Tide
This is News Radio seven to ten WNTM. Uncle Henry
here with John McNeil and Virginia O'Brien of Mobile Bay
Financial Solutions. You can find Mobile Bay Financial Solutions online
at MB financial Solutions dot com. That's MB financial Solutions
dot com. Telephone number two five to one sixty sixty
(00:28):
six five thousand if you'd like to call and make
an appointment or just call and ask a question. Two
five to one six sixty six five thousand. That is
the number for Mobile Bay Financial Solutions. The commentary presented
herein contains the opinions of Mobile Bay Wealth Management LLC,
a registered investment advisor. This information should not be relied
(00:48):
upon for tax purposes. Is based on sources believed to
be reliable. No guarantee is made to the completeness or
accuracy of this information. Mobile Bay Wealth Management LC shall
not be responsible for any trading decisions, damages, or other
losses resulting from or related to the information, data, analysis,
or opinions contained herein or their use which do not
(01:12):
constitute investment advice. Are provided as of the date written,
are provided solely for informational purposes, and therefore are not
an offer to buy or sell a security. Investments and
securities are subject to investment risk, including possible loss of principle.
Prices of securities may fluctuate from time to time and
may even become valueless. This information has not been tailored
(01:34):
to suit any individual. John McNeil, Virginia, Obrian, how are
things going this week at Mobile Bay Financial Solutions? Well?
Speaker 2 (01:40):
As usual, Uncle Henry, we usually like to start it
off with a little bit of football talk.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Good wowe road time.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Whow we're in football season? Yes, you know, as we
record this today, it is the Tuesday after the Tennessee
games Alabama Tennessee games at which we dominated.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Yes, indeed attended in person thanks to John mcneilan, Virginia, O, Brian.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Yes, and how was it? How was the atmosphere?
Speaker 1 (02:06):
I mean, it was as good as any any of
the atmospheres of games I've been to before. And it's
hard to compare from game to game because I got
to go to a few saving games thanks to you,
But I can't remember a game where it was that
electric the crowd. The crowd was ready before they ever
got on that field.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Yeah, I mean it just looks just I mean it
was just such a and people I don't. I don't
know if you've got a chance to watch or listen
to College Game Day at this past Saturday, but they
were at they asked Saban, what's the most underrated SEC
rivalry and he said Albama Tennessee hands down. He said,
people don't understand people that are in the SEC. SEC
don't understand how much we hate them and how much
(02:46):
they hate us. Yes, you know, it is a true hatred.
You know, Alabama Auburn. Okay, yeah, that's you know LSU Alabama, Yeah, Tennessee.
I mean they're you know, zep and you know now
as we knock on wood, we're ranked number four and
the A people's so and then you know, right in
front of us is Texas A and M who plays
(03:08):
LSU this weekend? Okay in Death Valley and we're I'm
going to be attending that game. Oh oh okay, yes,
disguised as maybe a neutral slash LSU fan. I don't
want to, you know, I don't. I've never wanted to
go as an Alabama fan playing l s U in
Death Valley. That just doesn't seem safe. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Now, what are they are? LSU fans called affectionately corn
dogs corn dogs. You will be you will be an
undercover corn dog.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
I'll be an undercover cornder. Yeah, like a what a
phony corn dog?
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Maybe? Uh pho dog, a pho dog?
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Yes, the tofu of corn dogs, if you will.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Okay, So it's.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
It's gonna be fun. I'm pretty excited. It's a night
game and got announced it's going to be a six
thirty game. Uh, I'm pretty excited about it because that's
supposed to be. Talk about an electric stadium. It's supposed
to be and of course A and M fans are
also known for just being just bringing the heat. So
I think it's going to be a fun game. LSU
is gonna have to really really deliver because they were,
uh you know of Courso called them to be the
(04:06):
national championships at the beginning of the year. Do you
remember that the national champions He called for it. Now,
whether that's gonna hold true, who knows.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
But yes, we'll see.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
I hope that. I think it would be a fun game.
I think it would be great to watch them take
A and M. I don't really have any allegians to
A and M obviously none to LSU, so you know,
we're gonna be with LSU our friends that are LSU fans,
so I'll be cheering for Lsu.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Okay, I just so.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
That I don't get in trouble, you know now, of course,
not necessarily coming from the heart. I don't want you
to think.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
That I'm no, I don't. You're you're being a nice guest.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
You're you're being a nice guest, and you're supporting the hosts.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
That's right, that's right.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
And it sounds like they need all the help they can.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Get, right now, that's right, that's right.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
All right, Well, here we are with John McNeil and
Virginia O'Brien. You can call their office at two five
one six six six five thousand. That's two five one
sixty six six five thousand from Mobile Bay Financial Solutions.
Let's do some financial fables. A subst fables can teach
us lessons about life and money. So I'm going to
read each of you a short fable and then you
(05:08):
tell us the moral of the story as it relates
to financial planning.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
All right, let's do it.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Let's start with the miser and his gold. There was
a miser who used to hide his gold at the
foot of a tree in his garden. Every week he
used to go and dig it up and gloat over
his riches. A robber who had noticed this, went and
dug up the gold and ran off with it. When
the miser came to gloat over his treasures, he found
(05:34):
nothing but the empty hole. He raised such an outcry
that all of the neighbors came to see what was wrong.
He told them how he used to come and visit
his gold. Did you ever take any of it out,
asked one of them. No, he said, I only came
to look at it. Then come over here and look
at the hole, said a neighbor. It will do you
(05:56):
just as much good. So what is the moral of
that fable?
Speaker 2 (06:01):
This master sounds like the Crichton Leprechaun, is what he
sounds like. But you know, wealth unused might as well
not exist. That's kind of the moral of this sort
of how I see it. You know, we we love
having meetings with clients where we say, guys, y'all need
to y'all need to spend some more money. You know, y'all,
we've got plenty of it. We've got plenty of it
that we can spend. Now we can go do the
(06:22):
things that you've always wanted to do. Or we tell people,
you know, they come in they say, oh, I don't
know if I'll ever be able to retire, and we're
we've told we've been able to tell them, you know,
not only can you retire, you can retire now if
you want, you know, making sure that people are you know,
enjoying all the things that they've scrimped and safe for
their whole lives. It's so it's so rewarding for us
(06:43):
to be able to help them, you know, help you know,
tell them that they can go spend it. And that's
that's always rewarding. And some people are a little hesitant
to do that, you know, but that's by having a
plan in place is so important. So yeah, I mean,
just making sure that we tell people all the time.
And Dad says this all the time. You know, you
don't want to be the richest person in the graveyard.
(07:05):
You know, you can't take it with you when you go,
so so anyway, but yeah, we encourage that when it's
you know, obviously when that can be afforded with clients.
But that's something that's really important to us, that make
sure that our clients will be able to enjoy those years.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Here is another fable. This one is the tortoise in
the hair.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Everybody's familiar with the tortoise and the hair.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
The hair was once boasting of his speed in front
of the other animals. I've never yet been beaten, he said,
I challenge anyone here to race with me. The tortoise
said quietly, I accept your challenge. That's a good joke,
said the hair. I could run circles around you. The
(07:45):
tortoise said, simply, shall we race? So a course was
made and the race began. The hair darted almost out
of sight immediately, but soon stopped, and, in order to
show off, lay down to have a nap. The tortoise
plotted on and plotted on, and when the hair awoke
(08:05):
from his nap, he saw the tortoise just near the
finish line and couldn't catch up in time to win
the race. So, John, may you know what's the moral
of this story?
Speaker 3 (08:15):
Well, you know, of course, everybody knows. The moral of
story is that slow and steady wins the race, right right.
I mean, you don't become wealthy overnight unless you're very lucky,
Like I talked to my sister in Pensacola. She bought
a lottery ticket today, so I'm looking forward to like
I think she said, eight hundred and sixty million dollars.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
That'd be nice. That'd be nice, you know.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
So I had a reminder that after taxes, we only
get about three hundred and eighty thousand dollars. Three hundred
eighty million dollars. She said, that'll do. But the slow
and steady does win the race, which means we when
we put together a plan, we remind people that we
divide monies up into three different categories, you know, the
(08:58):
short term money, medium term money, long term money, as
we like to refer to it as the go go money,
the slow go money, and the no go money. So
we divide things up to say, we need income now,
and that's where we invest those buckets to provide income
now shortly after retirement.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
And then the medium term is when we you know,
slow down a little bit and maybe not spending as
much money every day as it's still a Saturday, but
we're still we're we're not going to low three or
four times a week and we're only going once a week.
And then of course the Nogo years where we've become
you know, maybe infirmed or you know, having to spend
money to on healthcare rather than on fun stuff, which
(09:43):
is not fun to think about. But we build into
our plan to make sure people realize what we're doing.
So when we're designing the portfolio, Slow and Steady, we
don't want to look at the weekly or monthly ups
and downs of the market. We want to look at
the long term goals. What are we trying to accomplish
and how are we going to get there. Slow and
Steady wins the race. Virginia uses a lot of football
(10:05):
analogies women making presentations to our clients and and talk
about offense and defense. You know, you put the offense
on the field to score points, right. You put the
defense on the on the field to keep the offense
from scoring against you, right, But the defense can also
score points. Look at this past weekend, you saw it
picked six nine nine yards run favorite play. Yeah, the
(10:28):
defense can win. So we designed portfolios where we can
win with the defense and really, you know, try to
do a little bit better with the offense on the
on the portfolio. We just want to prepare against any
kind of a downturn since we're as we see here today,
we're at all time highs yet again this year in
the market SMP, Dow NASDAK Russell two thousand. Oil is down,
(10:52):
gold is way up, Silver's way up. There are a
lot of things that are changing in the market as
we speak today, and as we sit down with our
clients every day, every week, every quarter, every year, things change,
and we want to make sure we can change our
plan so that we can show them that slow and steady.
When we say slow, we're not talking about bearing money
(11:13):
in the backyard. We're not talking about, you know, just
not doing anything. We want to make sure we have
all of our money working with us. We have so
many people uncle hear that come in and say, you know,
when we first talk with them, they've got, you know,
hundreds of thousand dollars sitting in the bank earning point
zero four percent. That doesn't make any sense. You don't
need that kind of money. You can go get today.
(11:36):
Let's if you can get it within twenty four hours,
you'll be okay. So we can increase that rate of
return tenfold just sitting in money market accounts that are
paying a higher interest rate. So we want to show
them that slow and steady wins the race, and we
go year to year now for almost one hundred and
four years here at Mobile Bay Financial which is a
(11:59):
pretty accomplishment that both Virginia and I are very proud
of as her great grandfather, her grandfather, me and now
her are making sure there are clients understand what is
entailed in putting together a plan.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
You're listening to John mcneilan Virginia Brian of Mobile Bay
Financial Solutions. Their website is mbfinancial Solutions dot com. That's
mbfinancial Solutions dot com. The number to call is two
five to one six sixty six five thousand. That's two
five to one sixty six six five thousand for Mobile
Bay Financial Solutions. So let's talk about tough conversations. Sometimes
(12:38):
being a good advisor means having uncomfortable conversations. So tell
the listeners how you've helped some people navigate some of
these tricky conversations. So let's start with, how does the
death of the first spouse affect the financial plan?
Speaker 2 (12:55):
You know, this is something we talk about a lot.
We try to talk about this with mary couples before
it happened, well, before it happens, well, they're still very healthy.
So that they know, so that that that if there
is a spouse that passes away, that the other spouse
knows what that looks like. Financially. Of course, this has
a lot of a lot of different variables. You know,
(13:16):
how old is somebody, how old is that first spouse
when they pass away. Unfortunately, we had a family friend
whoass away at the age of thirty eight, who was
married with small kids. So it's that's a totally different
ballgame trying to prepare for that than it is. You know,
if a sixty five year old passes away, the kids
are out of the house and that kind of thing,
but still can leave a lot of gaps. So it's
something that's one of the biggest variables that we have
(13:38):
and planning is how long are you going to live
and when is the first person? When is the first
of the two going to pass away. It affects not
just you know, people think, oh, well, if one of
the spouse has passes away, I'm gonna need half the
income because it's going to take it's just one person,
not too but that's not how it works because if
you still have a mortgage, your mortgage doesn't cut in half.
(13:59):
You know, most of the time, your power bill, your
water bill doesn't really change much. So there's different things.
And what people don't really don't realize until it happens
to them is your taxes are totally different, uh, when
it's just one person not married filing jointly. So that's
another thing. So that's something that can be truly devastating
(14:20):
to a plan because it all depends on you know,
if they have a pension, traditional pension, what does that
survivor benefit look like? Is is there one? Or did
they did they use a strategy called pension maximization to
be able to maximize that as far as that's concerned.
But it's one of those things we try to have
these conversations with people way before it happens so that
(14:44):
they're not in total shock and devastation when it does happen.
One of the things that's really hard for us is
when we take on a new client as they're they
are widowed or a widower, because there's already so much
emotion with money, and then you have the added emotional
stress of losing a loved one arguably probably the most
(15:04):
important loved one in your life, and so that just
just so overwhelming. For people, it's almost just like, you know, paralyzing,
and it's something that we try to have that conversation with.
We were actually going through the scenario with a very young,
healthy couple the other day that we're coming in coming
on as new clients, talking about, okay, well this scenario,
what if the husband passes away at age seventy five
(15:26):
and the wife started tearing up. I mean, he's totally healthy.
They're like not even sixty yet. You know, we're just
going through the scenarios and she started tearing up and
I said, oh no, I don't you know, it's just
it's just a scenario. And he was like, y'all are
gonna make her crash. He does not like talking about this,
and I said, I know, it can be really tough
to talk about. It really can. But the reason that
we do talk about it is because you know, statistically,
(15:49):
females are gonna outlive males, and she's a little bit
younger than him, and you know, that's we want to
make sure that you're okay. She says, no, I understand. I'm glad,
you know, but it is hard to talk about. It's tough,
and that's thing that can really be one of the
biggest things that it can wreck a financial plan if
it's not planned for properly.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
All right, So how do you help people navigate this
tricky conversation what happens if nursing home care is needed?
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Uncle Henry. Unfortunately, there are three of us sitting at
this table right now. Two of us are going to
need long term care before we die. That's the sixty
six percent of the people. So when we look at that,
it can be devastating to a plan. That's why we
build it into our retirement dream catcher, compensating having buckets
(16:37):
of money positioned to take care of long term care
somewhere down the road, because the probability is it's going
to happen. When you look at a husband and wife,
they have a house, they don't have any mortgage, they
don't have any debt, they've got good income. But then
all of a sudden, one of them has to go
into a nursing home or have help at home, and
you're looking at another between eighty and one hundred thousand
(17:00):
dollars a year that they've got to have to pay
for that care. The expenses, the other expenses don't change
like Forrginia said earlier. You still have the house expenses,
may not have a mortgage. May you may have a mortgage,
you may have a cart or two. But we've got
to prepare for that and talking to them about it.
They usually understand that better than losing a spouse because
(17:23):
they've probably had to do it with a sibling or
a parent. They've had to, you know, take care of
them in a nursing home or at home care, and
it can be very expensive. If you don't prepare for it,
it can devastate an a state, or the whole family situation.
So we talk about it and they really do grasp it.
(17:45):
That's one of the things they say when we first
meet with people, asking them questions, how are you going
to pay for long term care? Well, you know, we'll
move in with the kids or something. That's not a plan,
that's a hope and a wish. You've got a plan
for this type stuff, not only financially, but legally. Need
to make sure all legal documents are in place, and
(18:06):
we we do all that, document all that and have
all that in their file.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Here's another one, another tricky conversation. How do you help
people navigate the conversation of do we need to keep
working longer than we'd planned.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Yeah, this is something that can that can come up.
You know, again, there's lots of variables that go into
retirement planning and lots of variables that are out of
anybody's control, and so there's things that come up that
you know, weren't you know, having to do that. For instance,
of supporting grandkids. You know that we've had that incense
happened where that really can it can be a really
(18:46):
determining factor on that supporting. We had a client that
there they were having to support their one of their
kids who became ill and having to do that, you know.
So it's it's it's lots of different things with that
that come into play, and that can be something that
is detrimental because it's it's fixed and you know, when
you get to retirement, you're looking at fixed income and
(19:07):
there's not a lot of big you know, we can't
take depending on what the retirement budget is, we can't
take huge chunks of money all the time. And we
also don't want to put a huge strain on the
assets too early on because we don't know how long
you know, you're going to live, So that's something that
can come into play, having to keep working it certainly,
it certainly can.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Here is another tricky conversation to have. How do you people?
How do you help people navigate this one? Do our
children understand our estate plan and how they fit into it?
If at all? You know?
Speaker 3 (19:41):
We encourage our clients, especially our senior clients, to involve
the family, if not the whole family, at least whoever
is named in their will as the executor. Usually a
husband and wife have a will and they're each other's executors,
are exectrics of each other's wills. But what happens when
(20:04):
there's only one left and they die, who's going to
be doing all this? It's gonna be one of the
kids usually, and every family has the wayward children and
their favorite child or the one that's more responsible.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
This name.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
We want that person involved with where mom and dad's assets?
What are they Who do they need to call if
something happens and we need some money? So that's very important.
Some people don't want their kids to know what they've got,
and that's unfortunate because it's gonna be a surprise to
them when that time comes.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
Okay, final tricky conversation. How do you help people navigate
this one? How do we separate from an advisor who
we like as a person but we now realize isn't
a good fit for us, or maybe was never a
good fit for us.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
You know, we've had to deal with this with some
clients before they asked for our you know, they've come
to see us to get you know, second o pin
or just you know, to look at everything, and they
realize that they would you know that we do holistic
planning and that kind of thing, and maybe their advisor
really isn't doing all of that, and so, you know,
(21:14):
those can be tough conversations to have for the for
the client, and you know, but it's a it's a
it's kind of a case back case thing because sometimes
it's it can be that they're friends with them, and
you know, trying to navigate that can be can be hard.
But it's one of those things when it comes down
to it, some people say, you know, what got you
(21:36):
here won't get you there, meaning they've done a really
great job for a lot of years getting you to
those retirement years, and now when it comes into retirement,
it's it's a totally different ballgame, you know, so it
can be something that's a totally different set of rules,
a totally different set of a totally different plan, that
kind of thing. And that's something that we, you know,
talk to clients a lot about.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
All Right, we're almost out of time, but would you
like to answer an email before we go? Sure if
you would like to email a question into John mcneilan,
Virginia O'Brian. The email address is info at mobifs dot com.
That's info at mobifs dot com and Jack writes in
here from Mobile, Alabama. Jack's email reads, I can't wait
(22:17):
to retire from a job, but I have a constant
fear of the markets having a big crash the week
after I leave the workforce, and a recession or depression
in my early years of retirement that are hard to
come back from. How do I overcome these fears?
Speaker 3 (22:33):
You don't clearing. We say this a lot, but it
comes down to having a plan. When when we sit
down with clients in our first, second, and third meeting
before we ever before they evercome clients, we have three
meetings and we explain and educate them on what we're
going to do, what we're recommending and how that's going
to work, and how that's going to protect you to
(22:55):
some degree over like he says, a recession depression. We
want to make sure we've money's protected that no matter
what happens in the market, we're going to be okay
as long as they're following the plan. And if they're
if they're having those kind of concerns, that means that
what they're doing right now, they don't understand what they're doing.
(23:16):
Nobody's ever explained to them, how they're invested, what kind
of risk they're taking, what happens if the if the
market does take a big downturn. We run everybody's if
they come to us as a new client, we take
their current portfolio and run it through a stress test
and says, what happens if we have another two thousand
and eight or another two thousand and two where markets
were devastated, how would their current portfolio work in that
(23:41):
scenario compared to what we're recommending, and what would happen
at that particular point. So educating our clients is a
big deal. We get we get accused all the time
of too much information, information overload. That's why we do
a three meeting process before they ever become clients, and
then we'll do four more before all the dust settles,
(24:02):
so they know exactly where they are and they don't
worry about if they wake up one morning and you
know Putin has done something, or you know we've we've
sunk another submarine off of Venezuela full of drugs. Yes,
you know, those type things get people concerned overnight. So
we want to educate, educate, educate, and they really appreciate
it and feel comfortable with it.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
All right, we're at a time. You can call John
and Virginia at Mobile Bay Financial Solutions at two five
one six six six five thousand. That's two five one
six six six five thousand for Mobile Bay Financial Solutions.
John McNeil, Virginia O'Brien, thank you, and roll TIMEE Roll
Tide
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