Simply Money

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Tonight, how to take advantage of next year's tax brackets,
the potential danger that could be lurking in your portfolio,
and you are asking the advisor you're listening to Simply Money,
presented by all Worth Financial I Memi Wagner along with
Steve Ruby. Steve, I think one of the most interesting
and surprising things for clients when I'm working with them
is they think they are in a certain tax bracket

(00:30):
or paying a certain tax rate, and when you start
talking to them about what their effective tax rate actually as,
they're like, oh, I thought I was actually paying a
lot more than that in taxes. It's important that you
know this because there's a lot of financial decisions you
can make based on your tax brackets. Not sexy, not exciting,
but I don't know, saving money is exciting.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
Yeah, I mean, if you're in the twenty two percent
tax bracket, that doesn't mean you're paying twenty two percent
on all of your income. That's the highest marginal rate
that you pay. We're going to tell talk about what
the new tax rates look like today. But you are correct,
there are plenty of individuals out there that just don't
realize that that's the case. Your effective tax rate is
going to be much lower because you pay ten percent

(01:11):
on X number of dollars, twelve percent on the next
x number of dollars, and then twenty two percent only
above certain thresholds. But it is important to realize where
these thresholds are. And why we're talking about this right
now is because the IRS just put out the tax
tables for twenty twenty five and there are some adjustments there.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
And you know, I don't like reading a bunch of
numbers on the radio.

Speaker 3 (01:33):
But that's why I kicked it to you.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
Stay tuned here for a second. Listen to where you fall,
because this is important to know. Okay, for those of
you who are making a lot of money, you're doing
really well. Your paycheck is greater than six hundred and
twenty six thousand dollars as a single person or seven
hundred and fifty one thousand if you're married filing jointly,
you're in that set thirty seven percent tax bracket right

(01:57):
dropping down to the thirty five tax bracket for incomes
over two hundred and fifty thousand or five hundred thousand
dollars if you're married, down the thirty two thousand. Now,
if you're making close to two hundred thousand, so one
hundred and ninety seven thousand, or three hundred and ninety
four thousand for couples married filing jointly. Then we drop
down to that twenty four percent tax bracket. All right,

(02:19):
Are you making over one hundred and three thousand, or
if you're a couple filing jointly, two hundred and six thousand.
All right, Now we're going to look at that twenty
two percent tax bracket. Stay with me here. If you're
making over forty eight thousand, this is where you are
as a single person, or ninety six thousand, nine hundred
and fifty for couples filing jointly. Now there's a big

(02:39):
drop here, right from the twenty two percent tax bracket
down to the twelve percent if your income is over
eleven thousand, nine hundred for an individual or twenty eight
thousand for married couples filing jointly, And then we go
down to the lowest tax bracket, right this is the
ten percent incomes of eleven thousand, nine to twenty five
or less, or for married couples filing jointly, if you're

(03:00):
making twenty three thousand, eight hundred and fifty or less.
It is important to know which tax bracket you fall into,
and so I hope you were listening there, and so
now you have kind of a mental picture of where
you're falling when it comes to twenty five tax brackets.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
And a little bit of good news here is that
the standard deduction is also going to increase in twenty
twenty five. It's going all the way up to thirty
thousand dollars for married couples filing jointly. Now, it was
already high in twenty twenty four twenty nine thousan two
hundred single filers. In twenty twenty five, it's going up
to fifteen thousand from fourteen thousand, six hundred. Now, keep
in mind that these brackets are kind of a one

(03:41):
more year thing. The Trump tax cuts, sunsetting at the
end of twenty twenty five, are going to change these
numbers around to be a little bit less favorable for
those of us that are earning and paying taxes.

Speaker 1 (03:55):
And this is something that you are probably reading about
in the financial headlines current or watching right lots of
people talking about the Trump tax cuts right put into
place in twenty seventeen feels like a long time ago.
It also seemed like then they were going to last forever.
And here we are now knocking on the door of
next year when those those Trump Trump tax cuts are

(04:15):
set to expire. And so important to know this because
you are likely right now in a lower tax bracket
than you will be in the future, and knowledge is power.
The question is what are you going to do with
that information when these when these tax cuts expire. I
don't have answers to where we're going to go, but

(04:35):
I think most of us and educated informed guests would
mean taxes are going to go up.

Speaker 2 (04:41):
Yeah, and this is you know, the Trump tax cuts
sunsetting here to and reverting to twenty seventeen levels. You know,
this is pretty sure that's happening. You know, there's not
a lot of room to speculate that it's not going
to happen. If I were to speculate a little bit,
which I do from time to time. You know, there's
different ways when we're build holding financial plans that we
can actually write in future tax increases to see how

(05:05):
that might have an impact on the longevity of somebody's assets,
and then pairing that with wroth conversion strategies.

Speaker 3 (05:10):
How that might help.

Speaker 2 (05:11):
But speculation, you know, looking into the twenty thirties, before
changes to Social Security happen, maybe we're going to see
tax increases again, because that is a solution to help
with longevity of social security. So you know, planning like
we are not going to see tax rates this low
for quite some time, if not ever again, it gives

(05:32):
us some opportunities. And I just touched on one Wroth conversions.
We're getting a lot of people that are proactively asking
about this strategy because there's a lot of information out
there that's currently talking about it.

Speaker 1 (05:43):
Well, and for those we can't remember back to twenty
seventeen because it was a long time ago. If you're
in the highest tax bracket, right those people making six
hundred and something thousand plus, that thirty six percent tax
bracket goes up to thirty nine point six and some
of those middle tax brackets and twenty per plus, you
could be paying three to four percent more than you

(06:04):
are this year, which is why you know we talk
about roth conversions steep. To your point, it is am
I paying less in taxes today than I think I
will be in the future, in which case it could
make sense to lock in today's tax break now, and
then all the gains on that Wroth account, right, they
grow tax free, you've already paid taxes on it. Well,
if you're thinking, okay, likely this is what's going to happen,

(06:25):
and we're pretty sure that's where we're moving here, it
could make sense to look at these Wroth conversions you're
listening to simply money presented by all Worth Financial and
Ami Wagner along with Steve Ruby, big news out of
the irs, right, where tax brackets are going to fall
next year, what they look like, and not only what
twenty twenty five looks like, Steve, but I think more
importantly to your point, at the end of twenty twenty
five is when the Trump tax cuts sunsets, and then

(06:47):
we're going to see a whole different sort of tax
structure again.

Speaker 2 (06:51):
Yeah, the standard deduction is also going to go down
in twenty twenty six. So outside of Wroth conversions, which
I could talk about for hours, I really do deploy
the strategy a lot with folks I work with, and
fiduciary financial planners should because it's a great opportunity to
diversify future tax liabilities. But looking at deferring deductions now.
For example, if you have a donor advised fund and

(07:15):
highly appreciated stock that you sometimes transition into your donor
advice fund, maybe rather than doing it in twenty twenty
four twenty twenty five, we wait until twenty twenty six,
at that point where itemizing will once again be more beneficial.
That's called bunching your tax filing. If you're working with
a CPA, oftentimes they will help with some of these

(07:35):
strategies as to when you should itemize. Verse take taking
the standard deduction. So if there's certain deductions like business
expenses or charitable contributions that you could leverage now, maybe
sit on it and wait until twenty twenty six.

Speaker 1 (07:50):
A couple of other things we would say make sense
to take advantage of from a tax standpoint, regardless of
Really the timing is maximizing your retirement contributions. Right, if
you're put in these into a traditional four one K,
take full advantage of that. That's lowering your taxable income.
And then those funds are growing, right, so that makes sense.
The funds grow tax deferred. And then my favorite health

(08:13):
savings account, you can pull this out. It doesn't matter
if it's twenty twenty four, twenty twenty five, twenty thirty,
unless the government's like, oh wait a second, this is
too suite of a deal, We're going to take these away.
These are triple tax advantage if the money is going
into this account and you are using it for qualified
medical expenses, either now or in the future. And I
would say that's where they really make sense. If you're

(08:34):
going to maximize these hsas you pay for out of
pocket expenses, healthcare expenses. Now, you invest these dollars, and
then let these dollars grow for retirement, and then when
you have health care expenses and retirement you use these dollars.
Guess what, you do not pay taxes on a single
dollar that are in these hsas. And again, it only

(08:54):
makes sense if a high deductible health care plan makes
sense for you. But this is a great tax planning's
tool for now and in the.

Speaker 2 (09:02):
Future if you're using it properly. Yes, you know, you
really got to listen to Amy's advice on this one.
HSA is are They are a beautiful vehicle. I made
the switch in my family once to a high deductible
health plan. Max EHSA, didn't touch it, invested with it.
It's still still sitting there. But I you know, I
had to switch back to a PPO due to a
family health change and I'm not eligible for an HSA anymore.

(09:23):
But for for folks that I work with, it, are
you better believe that I'm hammering that one pretty hard.
Other investment strategies, because you should be investing with your
HSA proceeds, but you know, considering other investment strategies capital
gains taxes are expected to increase, so leveraging strategies like
tax lofts harvesting to offset gains is an opportunity to

(09:43):
help minimize what you're actually realizing, which can help with
your tax impact.

Speaker 1 (09:48):
There could also be an impact here to business owners,
right if you own a small business, right, it might
make advance. It might be advantageous to you to switch
to an ESCREP from a c corp or an LLC.
There might be additional benefits there, So definitely worth something
to talk to your CPA about looking into that. And
then as state planning, you know, talk about this and

(10:09):
it doesn't sound I listen. I know it's not exciting,
but this is an active love, right. In part of
that act of love is understanding how if your children
or grandchildren or loved ones whoever they are are getting
an inheritance, how can you make that inheritance as tax
efficient for them as possible? And sometimes it could make
even more sense to do gifts while you're still around, right,

(10:31):
So looking at all of the options there can make
a lot of sense from a tax planning standpoint.

Speaker 2 (10:37):
Yeah, I mean this is important because right now, the
federal gift tax limit in the lifetime is about fourteen
million dollars for an individual. In twenty twenty four, that's
going to go way down, which is where the death
tax comes into play. That used to be talked about
quite a bit now that the limits are so high
on the lifetime exclusion.

Speaker 3 (10:57):
You know, not a lot of.

Speaker 2 (10:58):
Folks see that, but for those that do, there are
some legitimate gifting strategies. You know, up to if you're married,
you and your spouse can give a child or a
grandchild or even an in law, you know, eighteen thousand
dollars each each year to chip away at your estate,
because if you don't, then that money is just going

(11:19):
to be given Uncle Sam via tax as part of
the death tax when you're gone. Other strategies like paying
medical bills directly for loved ones. That doesn't even count
as a gift, So you don't need to file any
additional paperwork if you go above the annual exemption of
eighteen thousand. So there are ways that you can put
your money to work in life without with removing that

(11:41):
from tax consideration and death.

Speaker 1 (11:44):
Taxes are never fun to talk about or think about.
But if done right right and you're not looking at
just you know, tax preparation, but tax planning year round,
understanding which tax bracket you're falling into, there are things
you can take advantage of. Again, knowledge is power. Here's
the Worth advice. Don't let hire your tax brackets get
you down. There's lots of ways to take advantage and

(12:05):
keep more money in your pocket. Rate Steve, you always
say poke Uncle Sam in the eye with a stick. Right,
have to know what are the ways that you can
take advantage of to do that? Coming up next, we're
talking about a potential danger sitting in your portfolio and
how to fix it. You're listening to Simply Money presented
by all Worth Financial here on fifty five KRC the
talk station. You're listening to Simply Money. You're presented by

(12:33):
all Worth Financial. I Meaniwagnola with Steve Ruby. If you
can't listen to Simply Money every night, you don't have
to miss a thing. We've got a daily podcast for you,
search Simply Money. It's right there on the iHeart app
or wherever you turn to to get your podcasts. Coming
up at six forty three, we're answering your questions and
you've got a lot of them about estate planning, other
financial advisors, and a lot more. You know, I think

(12:55):
there's a lot of people, Steve, when you talk about
your compensation or your benefits at work far beyond salary.
In health insurance, in some cases you can get some
company stock, and that can be a really confusing thing
because your paycheck is coming from that company. You know,
a lot of your networks can come from that company
if you have a high percentage of this company stock,

(13:16):
and so it becomes from a long term financial planning perspective,
how is it best to handle that?

Speaker 2 (13:24):
So these are good problems to have, first and foremost,
if you if you're an individual that is fortunate enough, Yeah,
if you're fortunate enough to get equity compensation on top
of your regular income, that then you know, it can
create some some tax and investment planning problems, but again
good problems to have urs user restricted stock units. And

(13:45):
what it is is a promise deliver share to deliver
shares to an employee at a future date if certain
investing conditions are met. That's usually uh time frame. You
know how long you have hold these she held these
shares for once they vest, it's usually within a five
year period. They're not transferable, they can't be solder traded.

(14:06):
This is just stock that you get that that you
can cash in through your employer. And it's been an
arise in recent years that more and more people are
getting equity compensation.

Speaker 1 (14:18):
I would just say, if this is you pay attention
to it. Sit down and try to figure out how
much of your total portfolio is in that company stock
you know, and take into account. If you work for
a Kloger or a Procter and Gamble and you have
you know in your flour one K index funds that

(14:40):
you know track the S and P five hundred or whatever,
you're also going to own a piece of that company
through there. So just try to get an overall picture
of how much that you have is tied to that
individual company.

Speaker 2 (14:53):
This is interesting because RSUs are creating occasional problems for
folks that are all of a sudden oversaturated in one
company stock, the same way that four oh one k's
used to be able to hold significant portions of the
balance in an individual company stock. Changes to laws have happened,
so that's not really going to happen anymore.

Speaker 3 (15:12):
Of GE.

Speaker 2 (15:13):
For example, there's a lot of folks in town here
that had sometimes one hundred percent of their four oh
one k balance in GE, and when it went through
some issues, so did their retirement prospects. So this is
an interesting trend that more and more people are receiving
equity compensation because it does create scenarios where maybe you
have more than five or ten percent of one company

(15:35):
stock making up your entire wealth. In fact, I've seen
it where it could be fifty to sixty percent. You know,
that's a little anecdotal, but nonetheless I certainly do see
it from time to time where people that are heavily
compensated in RSUs, once those shares vests, they have lots
of oversaturation in that single company.

Speaker 1 (15:54):
Yeah, I mean to your point that fifty to sixty percent, right,
it's like you love the company so much. We talk
a lot of times on the show about how fear
and greed can play a role in helping you or
enabling you to make terrible decisions about your finances. This
isn't fear or greed. It's just like, I don't know,
loyalty or kind of a devotion to that company. Right,

(16:14):
You're in there day in and day out. You believe
what you're doing, maybe you've got the inside track on
some research and development, and you just have this great
feeling about where this company is headed in the future. Well,
that's all well and good, but we have seen so
many times disruptors that have come from out of absolutely
left field into certain sectors or certain companies, and then

(16:35):
all of a sudden, think about this, half half of
your retirement, half of your net worth is tied to
one company. What if something goes south? And I don't
think you have to look any farther than General Electric
to understand that this absolutely can happen.

Speaker 2 (16:51):
Yeah, it creates scary scenarios where you know, I'll meet
with somebody for the first time and we'll be having
kind of a fact finding conversation, learning more about their
financial situation, their needs or goals, and sometimes people drop
these bombs that are like, yeah, most of my money
is tied up in my company stock through my employer.
Alarm bells go off. It's like, all right, well, we
have something that we need to fix right now. You

(17:13):
might not see it as a problem from a financial
planning perspective, it adds incredible risk to the longevity of
your money.

Speaker 1 (17:19):
So let's talk about this. If you have so much
of your portfolio in one individual company, like what are
your options? Direct indexing used to be a thing that
was only for the highest net worth, right. This is
where you're buying positions in a bunch of different companies.
You know, if it's the S and P five hundred,
you're buying pieces individual pieces of five hundred different companies,

(17:40):
but you can leave out if you have Kroger stock
or Ge. You're proctoring it that piece of the pie.
And this is going to allow you to kind of
select what stocks you want to include or exclude based
on your preferences, and then you can kind of adjust
holdings as circumstances can change. With these individual companies. This
is a lot. It is a lot to keep track,
but with technology and advancements, there. This has become a

(18:04):
lot more accessible to the average investor.

Speaker 2 (18:07):
Yeah, direct and indexing is pretty cool. It's a separately
managed to count. If we look at the Russell three thousand,
for example, which represents the overall US stock market, the
S and B five hundred is the five hundred largest
US large cap stock, so that the Russell three thousand
actually has I think tw nine hundred and fifty stocks
in it, But that just doesn't have the same.

Speaker 3 (18:25):
Ring to it.

Speaker 2 (18:27):
Let's say you have a separately managed account that's doing
direct indexing, which the idea here is if you're oversaturated
in one stock, we can diversify that risk away. Advisors
can diversify that risk away by putting it into a
separately managed account that is direct indexing. If it's the
Russell three thousand, you might own three hundred to six
hundred of the stocks from the Russell three thousand, and

(18:49):
then the technology that exists in this day and age
can actually tax loss harvest nearly on a daily basis
to capitalize on fluctuations within those three thousand stocks, which
you know, we look a few weeks ago, the Brussel
three thousand was up significantly. However, about a third of
the stocks inside of that that index were down during

(19:12):
that same time period, which gives you the opportunity to
tax loss harvest.

Speaker 1 (19:16):
Yeah, there are opportunities here. And you know, just keep
in mind when it comes to these restricted stock options
or you know, any kind of compensation tied to your
specific company and that individual stock long term, your current
paycheck right is tied to that company too, So make
smart decisions beyond your emotions and your loyal te to

(19:37):
that company about your portfolio and your long term financial plan.
And here's the all Worth advice, the best of the
best fiduciary advisors. These are the ones who can use
all the tools in the toolbox if you're in this
situation to help maximize your wealth. We hope that you're
working with one. Coming up next information when it comes
to end of life care right what you need to know.
You're listening to Simply Money, presented by all Worth Financial

(19:59):
here in fifty five CA the talk station. You're listening
to Simply Money. I'm Meani Wagner along with Steve's throwback
for those people who find themselves in the caregiver position
or maybe just aging a little bit and it don't
have plans for the conversations that need to be had
right with that loved one, whether it's you're taking care

(20:19):
of someone, or maybe it's whether you what does that need?
What needs to happen there right end of life care?
What are those conversations what needs to be planned? Joining
us tonight for a topic that no one likes to
think about but we need to be talking about, is
Mark Rekman. He's our state planning expert from the law
firm of Wood and Lamping. Where do we even begin
with this? It truly isn't something that a lot of

(20:40):
us really want to think about.

Speaker 4 (20:43):
Well, absolutely, and I have many clients who just don't
want to think about it at all. And unfortunately, what
that does is it leaves a big void for other
family members who are not clear about what each of
us wants for ourselves. And really what we're talking about
is whether or not an individual wants to put limitations
on the care they receive at the end of their life.

Speaker 1 (21:04):
So let's talk about what your options are there, because
I think for a lot of people that don't really
understand the differences.

Speaker 4 (21:10):
Well, there's a whole system of care that gets involved
with people when they get older or when they become
terminally ill, and that system of care includes a whole
lot of very intrusive procedures, and sometimes people don't want
that kind of intrusive care if they're terminally ill. I'm
talking about ventilators, I'm talking about feeding tubes, I'm talking

(21:33):
about resuscitation, which involves massaging the heart, which of course
requires that you break ribs and things of that kind
for people who are terminally ill, if they're facing the
end of life, regardless, many people don't want those heroic
measures used. And the best way to avoid that is
you've got to say so in advance.

Speaker 1 (21:55):
And how do you say so? As you're talking about this, Mark,
I'm thinking about the fact that I lost my mom
thirteen years ago. But she had a terminal case of cancer,
and while we talked about a lot of things towards
the end, we never talked about what she wanted. And
then all of a sudden she was in a place
where she couldn't talk to us, and we were having
to guess on what she wanted. And that's a really

(22:15):
difficult thing. So I'm assuming one of the conversations has
to be with loved ones.

Speaker 4 (22:19):
What else, well, that's exactly right. And to be clear, Amy,
we're talking about people who are at the end of life,
and the way we define that here in Ohio is
that your condition must be irreversible, incurable, and untreatable. That
has to be diagnosed by two people, by two doctors
who have personally examined you. These are not file reviews,

(22:40):
these are personal exams. And you have to be at
the end stage of whatever disease process or whatever injury
you suffered, so you have to be death imminent. In
other words, death is likely to occur within a matter
of days, so any steps that.

Speaker 1 (22:56):
Were taken would buy you hours or a few days,
but not substantially improve your quality of life or give
you months and months more.

Speaker 4 (23:05):
That's right. And many people say to me, yeah, but
what if I get better? And the answer is, this
is what we're talking about now. Is the point at
which you're not.

Speaker 1 (23:12):
Going to get better, irreversible, exactly.

Speaker 4 (23:15):
And so the first, very first step is to keep
communications open, and what that means is have this conversation
with your family members early while you're still able to speak.
The example you gave of your mother is the perfect one.
Let your family know what you want let your doctor
know what you want. In other words, tell your doctor
what your wishes are. And in Ohio and Kentucky and Indiana,

(23:37):
for all of our listeners, the law provides a mechanism
that allows you to pick a healthcare decision maker. And
this is done through the use of a power of
attorney for health care. So I get to pick who's
going to make that decision, who's going to implement my instructions.
And to do so, I have to execute a power
of attorney for health care, and that means I got

(23:59):
to pick somebody. And picking somebody me is all about
picking the right person.

Speaker 1 (24:03):
It was just thinking through that because you can think
it's the right person. But when push comes to shove
and you're actually not able to speak for yourself, it
becomes a very very emotional time for people. And some
people will say, well, let's hold on, but let's try this.
But let's try that even if it's not your wishes.

Speaker 4 (24:22):
Well, that's exactly right, and so picking someone you love
is probably not the right criteria. What you really need
to do is pick someone you trust. But you've got
to pick someone who is emotionally available. And that's the
point you were making a moment ago, if they're too close,
if they're so emotionally involved that they cannot be objective,
that may limit their ability to do the job. It

(24:45):
requires some degree of objectivity, some level of sophistication. It
also requires patience because you're working with the medical system,
and the medical system we have here in this country
is state of the art. It's the best in the world, wonderful,
but it is bureaucratic, it is slow, it is in

(25:06):
many cases sort of hard to work through. And whoever
this person is, they need to have patience and they
need to work within the system.

Speaker 1 (25:14):
So you're having conversations with your family, you're having conversations
with your doctors, you're putting things in writing. It's interesting
because at this point, though, I can't tell you how
many times, even recently, I've been having conversations with friends
of mine, your family members kind of in a terminal state,
and they'll say, like, gosh, we wish we would have
brought in hospice earlier. We wish we had turned to this,

(25:38):
because the support that it is not only for that
person who is really ill, but for the entire family
is so much. How do you know when it's time to.

Speaker 4 (25:47):
Do that well. And that's a great question, because the
truth is many people hesitate to call hospice because they
think they're giving up, and that's not the case. And
I've learned in my practice that calling hospice actually can
extend life. Paliative care can actually extend the life, not
to mention improving the quality of life. Hospice gives you

(26:11):
access to a whole host of resources. Then what it
does Amy and my experience, is it changes the tone
of the conversation with all the medical institutions. So if
you're dealing with the doctor or any health professional and
they know that hospice is involved, they will give credence
to ideas and choices that are a little different than

(26:34):
if hospice is not involved. What I mean by that,
For example, I had a case with a client some
years ago who had heart surgery and the surgery did
not go well, and the doctor was unhappy about that.
I don't know that he or she did anything wrong,
but they were still very frustrated by it, and they
went back in and they did a second surgery and
that did not work. And the doctor was just bound

(26:54):
and determined to save this patient and to fix whatever
was wrong with and in fact they were terminal and
there's nothing they could do. The doctor wasn't really open
to discussing the option of doing nothing. Hospice got involved
and it was interesting how different the how different the

(27:15):
language and the choices and the conversation was when the
doctor finally sort of embraced the fact that this wasn't
going to work out.

Speaker 1 (27:23):
And it's atally different mindset, right for a doctor.

Speaker 4 (27:25):
Yes, And I'm not being critical of doctors at all.
And in fact, Amy, we want our doctors to be
dedicated and focused on care, and we want them to go, go, go.
And I think if if you and I were inventing
a healthcare system, we would build into it this desire
by our healthcare providers to be assertive, to be aggressive,
to pursue whatever options are open to them. Absolutely, But

(27:48):
what that means for you and I as consumers is
that we have to then be the party that creates
them the limitations and enforces. Enforces may be a harsh word,
but implements when to say enough is enough, And that
means that each one of us needs to step up
and say, you know what, I'm going to take control
over this final decision, and thank you doctors, thank you nurses,

(28:10):
thank you hospitals for doing everything you can. But it's
time to have a more a different kind of conversation.

Speaker 1 (28:17):
I have found with the healthcare system. You have to
be an advocate for that person that you love, right
And so, you know, I think sometimes because we do
doctors go through so much school, and they're so smart,
and many of them, you know, have so much experience
under their belt, that sometimes we don't listen to our
guts when we say, but this person we think has
had enough, right and so advocate when you have had

(28:39):
these conversations with your loved ones and maybe you're hearing
something different from doctors, and of course you want to
hold out hope. But at the same time, if kind
of in your gut you feel like they probably would
not want this, it's okay to advocate for that.

Speaker 4 (28:51):
And you know, that's what I was getting at a
little while ago when I said, it's not always easy
to pick the right person because the qualities that you
just talked about, the process you just talked about requires
certain levels of maturity in the individual. We picked some
level of good judgment and objectivity, and that doesn't mean

(29:14):
that that espouse or a child is not a good choice.
They may be the right choice, but if you've got
three kids, pick the one who's going to be a
little bit more objective and a little bit better at
getting along with the system, including the family system, because
you may find that that calms the waters.

Speaker 1 (29:32):
Great insights a is awas from Mark Rockman are estate
planning expert at law firm the law Firm of Wood
and Lamping. If you have someone right who is in
this situation, how you begin to have those conversations and
plan for what's next. You're listening to Simply Money here
on fifty five r Z the talk station. You're listening

(29:53):
to simply Money for somebody all worth financial. I mean,
you're along with Steve Ruby. You have a financial question,
it's keeping you up at night, or you and your
spouse just can't agree on it. While we can help.
There's a red button you can click on while you're
listening to the show. It's right there on the iHeart opacord.
Your question. It's coming straight to us. And we've got
a lot of questions from you tonight. The first one

(30:13):
from Jerry and Mason.

Speaker 3 (30:15):
What's up?

Speaker 2 (30:15):
Amy and Steve I'm just wondering how someone knows it's
time to leave their advisor.

Speaker 3 (30:20):
My dad works with one, but I don't think it's
a good fit for him.

Speaker 2 (30:23):
Hey, Jerry, good to know you're looking out for your
dad there. There certainly are advisor client relationships that are
not a good fit. And obviously this comes from a
place of bias. But is your advisor or is your
dad's advisor truly a fiduciary at all times? You know,
there's a lot of folks out there that maybe began
a relationship with somebody twenty thirty years ago when times
were a little bit different, and they're still working with

(30:45):
maybe a stockbroker, somebody that's getting commissions to sell products,
not necessarily building financial plans and really helping with all
aspects of financial planning, not just money management. So you know,
ask to attend the meeting and hammer this person with
questions about how are you paid, what services do you offer?

Speaker 4 (31:04):
Right?

Speaker 2 (31:04):
You know, I'm curious to know why you don't think
it's a good fit. But you know, if you have
that hunch, maybe it's time to get in a meeting
and maybe make some recommendations to your father there.

Speaker 1 (31:14):
And I think a few questions you can be asking
your dad is how often does he hear from the advisor?
Is your dad the one who's reaching out or is
the advisor reaching out? And then what kinds of things
are they talking about? If the if it's a call
and the advisor's like, okay, you go with your investments, great, great,
and they're not asking is your spending the same? Or
you know, are there have needs changed? What about estate planning?

(31:36):
Is that updated? What about tax strategies? Have they talked
about roth conversions? If these conversations aren't happening with your dad,
then yeah, it might make sense for them for your
dad to start looking around. All right, let's get to
Tracy next from Warren County.

Speaker 2 (31:50):
My husband and I are trying to decide who to
name as our executor.

Speaker 1 (31:53):
We have a few family members in mind and even
a few friends. Any suggestions for how to make this decision.
This is a great question. When you're looking at this
list of potential people, I would say look at it
through the lens of you know, we all kind of
have that person that's just really organized, like they put
their their nose down and they get something done and

(32:14):
they stick with it. This is the kind of person
that would be great for the role of an executor.
What you want to steer clear of is someone who's
going to be highly emotional, someone who doesn't communicate well,
someone who doesn't work well with others, right, because this
executor is going to be dealing with several different family members.
So I would say organization is the key here. You know,

(32:35):
someone who maybe has a little accounting or financial background
can be a little bit helpful, but definitely not a necessity.
I would say, you know, someone who's a great communicator,
gets well all, gets along well with others, and is
going to see this through to completion. Right, They're going
to be helping out the rest of your family members.
Not a fun thing that I was gonna say. It's
not a fun thing to do, you.

Speaker 3 (32:56):
Know, right.

Speaker 1 (32:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (32:57):
I've actually heard Mark Rekman say find one of the
busiest people you know, because they're the ones that are
forced to be organized, ah, which I thought was kind
of fascinating.

Speaker 1 (33:06):
Yeah, great one, great one are Aaron from Norwood's up next.
My mom started claiming Social Security earlier this year, but
then realized she could get more if she waited a
few more years, and now regrets claiming when she did.

Speaker 3 (33:18):
Is she stuck with this decision again?

Speaker 2 (33:21):
Good looking out for your parents, Aaron. So, social Security,
there is something called a Social Security withdrawal. There's an
application that you need to fill out in order to
make this happen. It's a good thing that this happened
this year, because if it's more than twelve months, then
it's not option. But you do have to realize that
benefits will need to be paid back in order, Yeah,
in order to capitalize on this, because yeah, it can

(33:44):
be very beneficial for how much more she could get
back by deferring or in this case, doing a Social
Security withdrawal and then claiming again a couple of years
down the line. This is something you can only do once,
by the way, So yeah, if she's done before for
some reason, than not an option. But you know that
there is kind of a redo here with some some caveats.

Speaker 1 (34:06):
Let's get to Peter's question next. He's from Deer Park.
We just inherited a house from Ann who passed away.
If and when we decide to sell, what should we
do to pay the least amount of taxes possible. One
thing that's important to understand about inheritance is when you
inherit stuck or you inherit a home. You inheriting that

(34:28):
at a step up basis, meaning at the time of
that death, what is the home worth. So say you
get the house this year, and it's worth two hundred
and fifty thousand at the point that you inherited when
your aunt passed away, right, two hundred and fifty thousand.
You hold on to it for a year. By this
time next year, it's worth two hundred and fifty eight thousand.
Right that the taxes would be the eight thousand gain

(34:48):
a dollar gain that you've seen over the past year,
not what your aunt originally paid for that house. That's
why it's important to understand how that stepped up basis works,
because it is definitely incredibly beneficial to those who are
getting inheritance like these.

Speaker 2 (35:02):
It is as a possibility of living in it as well,
deferring to access till later. Yeah, sitting down with an
accountant and figuring out, you know what it would look
like to rent it out. Perhaps you know there's options here.
I'd say a lot of folks do end up selling
and taking advantage of the stepped up basis, But.

Speaker 1 (35:19):
You do have options coming up next how to potentially
save thousands of dollars in one day. You're listening to
simply Money presented by all Worth Financial. Here in fifty
five KRC the tox station, you're listening to simply Money
presented by all Worth Financial. I mean you Wagner along
with Steve Ruby, you know, we hear people all the

(35:41):
time complain like I just can't save money. I don't
even know where to get started. In most cases, there
are things that you can do to save now. It
may not make the difference of thousands and thousands of
dollars every month, but there are certainly ways to get started.
One of the first things I would say is how
often are you looking at your credit card statements? To

(36:01):
my husband's dismay, I'm looking at them often, and I'm like,
what is this? What is this? What is this?

Speaker 3 (36:08):
I do that too in my household.

Speaker 1 (36:10):
So of course, were that those people, right.

Speaker 2 (36:12):
Yeah, we come together on that one, that's for sure. Hey,
can you explain this one. I don't understand it. Where'd
this come from?

Speaker 4 (36:18):
Well?

Speaker 1 (36:19):
Yes, yeah, well, and I we have teenage kids, and
so one of the things that I've also found is
they'll sign up for like an app or a service
that has like a free amount of time, and then
they'll be like, oh, I didn't know we were going
to get charged after that, or I didn't know we
had to pay for that, and so I'm like, nope,
we're canceling this immediately. You know, another place that you

(36:39):
can check is if you have an iPhone or an
Apple account, if you go to your settings, you can
look at their Apple subscriptions subscriptions that you have through
your phone. You may not think there's any but I
know Nathan Backgrack, when we were doing the show together
several years ago, looked at it and was like, wait
a second, there's like seven things on here. I looked

(37:00):
at this at one point, and my husband and my
kids did a couple of things on there that I
didn't know about. It's just a matter of like managing
your subscriptions. And there have been studies done about this
to say, like the average person, if I were to
ask you, like, hey, Steve, how much do you think
you're paying every month and subscriptions, the average person's going
to say about eighty bucks, But in reality it's several

(37:21):
hundred dollars a month.

Speaker 2 (37:23):
Yeah, this is the type of thing where it's almost
worth taking a personal day once a year from work,
just sit down and scrutinize, because you couldn't end up
saving yourself quite a bit of money.

Speaker 4 (37:31):
Here.

Speaker 2 (37:32):
The call that I make every year, maybe every two years,
is to my insurance companies, Yes, hey, what coverage do
I have?

Speaker 3 (37:38):
Why did that change? What changes could I make? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (37:42):
I mean for homeowners insurance, you want to always have
replacement total replacement cost of your home. But you know
there's worth exploring options that maybe will bring down your
premium by messing with a deductible. For homeowners or car insurance,
you know it's certainly worth exploring to see about negotiating
what you're paying depending on what you're getting.

Speaker 1 (38:03):
Here's the best tip. We talked about this on the show,
and I did it myself. It's called insurify, and we
used it for car insurance. There are five people in
our house that are currently driving rate. Three of those teenagers.
Luckily they're all girls, so they're not quite as expensive,
but it is expensive. I went on and surify, and
I'm talking about within fifteen to twenty minutes, was able

(38:25):
to cut our insurance our monthly rate in half, Wow
in half. So it's just to your point. It's taking
a few hours or a day once a year and
saying how can we save money? There are ways. There
are budgeting apps out there like good Budget that can
help you figure out how to cut costs over the
long run. You do have options, that's the key. Thanks

(38:47):
for listening. You've been listening to Simply Money and presented
by all Worth Financial here in fifty five krs the
talk station