August 8, 2025 • 38 mins
On today’s episode of Simply Money presented by Allworth Financial, Bob and Brian mix serious financial wisdom with a little “Would You Rather?” fun. They challenge each other—and you—with quirky retirement scenarios that spotlight real planning trade-offs: Would you rather retire at 55 with $2 million, or work until 70 with $5 million? The answers might surprise you.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Tonight it's would you Rather Retirement? Edition? You're listening to
Simply Money because by all with financial I'm Bob spun
Seller along with Brian James. It's Friday, and we're gonna
try to have a little bit of fun here, but
hopefully with at least a little bit of purpose, because,
let's face it, retirement planning is full of tough decisions.
That tonight we are gonna try to turn them into
(00:27):
a little bit of a game. We're gonna throw out
real life scenarios that families face and see where we land,
and don't worry, we'll explain what these choices could mean
for your plan, your taxes, and your peace of mind.
All right, Brian, question number one, I'm throwing it to you.
Would you rather retire at fifty five with two million
dollars or at age sixty five with four million dollars?
Speaker 2 (00:52):
You know that that's an easy answer for me, Bob,
because I'm gonna say sixty five with four million, And
it's got more to do with the sixty five than
the four Because this is my situation. We don't talk
about ourselves a whole lot of very often, but I
like what I do. I sit at tables with people
who I enjoy, and we talk about stuff, and we
put together number puzzles, and I drink coffee and sometimes
we got to lunch and whatever. That every day it's
kind of fun. So for me, it's not about the
(01:15):
it's not about the pile of money. It's about the
If I win at fifty five, I'm not sure what
I would do with myself. I'd probably have the urge
to go do this for free because it just is enjoyable.
So I don't know. But what do you think you
have thought on that for you?
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Well, it's not just a thought for me, Brian, because
I'm right smack in the middle here. I'm sixty years
old and obviously I'm not retired yet. So my answer
runs along the same way as yours. I mean, I
do enjoy what I do, and it's good to get
paid to do what we do, and it's good to
have that. You know, pile of money continue to grow,
I guess so. But I think in terms of our listeners,
(01:50):
what you need to do is answer those questions for yourself.
The first question is how much money do I need
to have put away to afford to retire? Whether you
want to keep working or not, and then take a
look at getting into a situation where it's no longer
what you have to do, it's what you want to do.
And that's the sweet spot there of making a good
sound retirement age decision. All right, Question number two, Brian,
(02:14):
would you rather have a guaranteed five percent return every
year or take a shot at ten percent returns knowing
some years might be negative?
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Okay, so this one is less hypothetical than just plain reality.
If I'm gonna look at guaranteed type investments, then you know,
these are the kind of rates I can expect on
the around the five percent range. Yes, interest rates move around.
We're not talking about current rates and all that kind
of stuff. We're just talking on overtime. If I own
a pile of guaranteed type of investment instruments over the decades,
what would I've expected to have getten to have gotten
(02:45):
out of those? About five percent is about right. Ten
percent is a little mind blowing because we always tell
people and we build plans, we never use a ten
percent rate of return in a financial plan because that
just makes things look silly. That snowball effect is a
real thing, and it just it just makes it makes
it either causes people to mist trust completely those numbers
or it causes them to feel way too confident. So
we always use, you know, for a yearage investment more
(03:06):
like six eight percent. Let's make sure if you're an
aggressive investor, you know, let's use that and see how
it goes. Now, that set ten percent returns is the
long term average of the overall stock market. So despite
everything we've been through, despite the two thousand and eights,
in the twenty twenty twos and the O two's and
all those scary years, if you sat and never touched
your investments again, and you just owned a bunch of stocks,
(03:26):
well diversified, then you've got about ten percent. We keep hearing,
I think we talked about it recently. We keep hearing
that we should expect less out of the stock market.
But I've heard that, Bob since the late nineties, when
when the first Internet bubble that was led by Yahoo
of all companies have my members at, I heard that
once that fell apart, we all should have lower expectations.
Yet that hasn't come so personally to answer, I'm getting
(03:48):
long winded. But to answer that question, I'll take my
shot at ten percent returns because a lot of my
nest egg we're in unfortunate question. It's going to sit
here and go to my kids, so it can grow
for another thirty forty years. So I lean toward the
gros side and not the guarantee.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
How about you, Well, I fall somewhere in the middle,
and I start to gravitate toward the middle. I'm older
than you, so I'm closer to that age where this
this pile of money, as you say, needs to turn
into a paycheck. So I like having some of both,
because having growth but also minimizing a little bit some
(04:19):
of the volatility that tends to make your financial plan
work a little better.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
And so that's where fifty one, Bob, can you explain
to me how a rotary phone works?
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Maybe?
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Yeah, maybe, maybe another time.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
I think we'll do that in another segment. All right,
let's move on to question three, and I'll take this
one first. Would you rather give your kids five hundred
thousand dollars now or leave them one million dollars later? Brian,
I'm starting to live this now because my kids are
all grown adults, out of college. They're self sufficient, they've
(04:54):
got jobs, and my thought process on. This has changed
and is evolving as I watch them function and getting
married and buy their first homes and all that. For me,
it's not about five hundred thousand dollars or a million dollars.
It's just I think it's best again if they are
living responsibly and I can see evidence that they're doing planning,
(05:16):
budgeting well, doing all the right things. I don't know, Brian,
sometimes a two to five thousand dollars help with replacing
their furnace or doing something around their home, or putting
it into a five twenty nine plan for grandkids, that
really moves the needle for a young you know, growing family,
(05:38):
and it's much more beneficial to them to have a
little bit of that money now to get them out
of a pinch or keep them out of a pinch.
Then dumping you know, a million, two three million dollars
on them, you know, in thirty years won't really matter
to them. So that's my answer to that question.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Yeah, I completely agree with that. I think everybody needs
to get smacked around by life a little bit just
to just to kind of to get your head on straight.
And if if you're handing your kid's money that you
earned through your hard work. They will not have the
same life experience as you that got that hard work
got you where you are. Don't rob them of the
ability to earn that themselves. Think of this way, like
you just said, Bob, If you can swoop in every
(06:15):
now and then and give them a few thousand bucks
because the car died or or you know, or God forbid,
the air conditioner quit, that's a little bit bit of
a bigger expense. But regardless, you can help them out
with those things. That will take a little bit of
the edge off, but it will also allow them to
take a breath and realize that, Okay, we don't want
to go through that again. So maybe we should have
our own emergency fund, because I don't want mom and
Dad to always feel like they have to swoop in
(06:36):
versus give them a half million dollars. Now, it's probably
going to be spent pretty quick because we all would
without the benefit of life experience. We all would gravitate
toward fixing the problem the easiest way possible, which is,
let's write a big check out of this money that
we didn't know we were going to have anyway.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
So well, and that takes me back to my childhood
days where my mom would sit there and serve us,
and she was a wonderful cooked and cooked us a
balanced meal every day that included like salad and vegetables.
And she would always say, Bobby, if you don't eat
your vegetables, you're not gonna get any dessert. So you
(07:11):
know there's there was some assistance there.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Now, can you have any pudding if you don't eat
your meat?
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Boby? That's right. So you know we help our kids
a little bit, but we also have some boundaries and
that's that just is what makes the world go around,
all right, Brian? Would you rather pay your mortgage off
before you retire or keep a low rate mortgage and
invest the cash?
Speaker 2 (07:31):
This is the easy one to me. Math is math
is math. So low rate mortgage, especially if you're somebody
with one of those two point seventy five three percent mortgages,
Believe it or not, that debt is the best asset
you own because it allows you to free up your
dollars to do other stuff. If you're getting five six
you know, even we just talked a little bit about
the markets, evere ten percent over the long haul, this
is a math question. I would keep the mortgage at
a low rate and invest that cash. If you're this
(07:54):
is a little nerve wracking. People don't want to retire
with a mortgage. I don't either, But this is a
screaming you know, if I've got a thirty year mortgage
with a lot left on it, ever attire, that just
screams leave it alone if it's at a low rate. Now,
on the other hand, if it's a small you know,
maybe I had a thirty year and it's at a
low rate, but maybe there's only twenty thirty forty thousand
on it and I've got a nest, then then you
might split the difference, take take some just to pay
(08:15):
it down. That way, it'll be paid off sooner. But
I would definitely not sacrifice that even if if you're
not comfortable with the cash flow, if you want some
assistance with that on a monthly basis, that's very understandable.
Spend some of that cash, use it. You know, if
this is not an all or one decision, maybe you
take five hundred dollars out of this other other pile
of cash you've got, start taking distributions out of it
to get the mortgage paid down a little more quickly.
(08:37):
In addition to what you're already paying anyway, So that
way you've kind of you're on both sides of the
fence with I've invested my pile of money wherever that
came from, and I've assisted my cash flow here in
the short run, but something is going to grow. I
don't know if you've any differently about that.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
No, I'm in complete alignment on that, all right. Question
number five, would you rather delay social Security at age
seventy for a bigger paycheck or take it at sixty
two and invest it? Brian, I'll try to tackle this one.
I'm interested in your thoughts as well. I don't know
about you, Brian. I have no clients, exactly zero that
are taking their Social Security check at sixty two and
(09:14):
directly putting that into an investment account. If they're taking
their Social Security at sixty two or sixty three or
sixty five, they're using it, They're spending it, They're using
it as a source of retirement income, so they can
leave their investment portfolio alone and not take monthly systematic,
you know, distributions from that. You know, So, I mean,
(09:37):
do you have people at sixty two that take Social
Security early and invest that money.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
No, not at all, And because exactly if if somebody
is in that situation then you know they don't need
the money, well, that means they're probably working and that's
where their income's coming from. If they're working, then they're
gonna run into something called the Social Security earnings test.
That basically means you're gonna give back a chunk of it.
So now you double down on the bad idea part
of this because it'll be less anyway, because you at age
sixty two, if you are earning more than about twenty
(10:03):
two thousand dollars, then you're going to start to give
back junks to that Social Security Yes, you'll get you'll
get that back eventually. That's another segment, but it's not
worth it.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
You're listening to Simply Money presented by all Worth Financial.
I'm Bob Sponseller along with Brian James. Brian, I'm dying
to hear your answer to this next question. Would you
rather retire with fewer dollars in a tax free wroth
IRA account or more dollars in a taxable IRA.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
You know, at this point I'll just answer this my
current situation because that this comes up with all the
time with people who you know, if you've been working
for thirty years, then you probably didn't have a didn't
have the option to go wroth roth didn't exist in
four to one k's, you know, really only the ten
last ten to fifteen years maybe where I'm starting to
see it just about available everywhere. It has not existed
for the entire twenty five years that you've been able
(10:51):
to do a roth Ira. So my point in all
of this is, I have a lot of people who
have a substantial amount of money, of a portion of
their nest egg that's tied up on the retax side,
and I all include myself, and I'm going to go
out on them. Guess you're in this situation because anybody
who worked for the past thirty years probably has most
of those dollars sitting on the pre tax side.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
That means I hate paying taxes, Brian, That's another way
to think about it.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
So we've tied ourselves up for significant required minimum distributions,
so I'm offsetting that and some this may be a
bad decision. Ask me in thirty years, I am teeing
myself up to where we are paying taxes. Now, we're
making wroth ira contra or WROTH four O one K
contributions despite the fact that we are in the highest
bracket will ever be in. And I know that consciously,
but it's the only way I'm ever going to have
(11:34):
a tax free pile of money. And I do know
that my happiest clients, or at least the ones who
get least anger at the irs, are the ones who
took the time to build a tax free pile of
money along time alongside their pretax that gives them options.
They have the ability to choose in a given tax
year based on whatever else is going on. Maybe we
need to hit the income taxable stuff, or no, this
is a spendye tax year, so we're going to hit
(11:54):
the wroth for this side of things. I want that
option too. Those folks seem a lot happier.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Very interesting. See you're electing to pay a little taxes
now in order to buy yourself some flexibility down the road.
I love it. Here's the all Worth advice answer those
tough would you rather questions now before life just answers
them for you by default. All right, gold is soaring?
Should you buy more? Or are you literally walking the
plank here? And speaking of the high seas. Could your
(12:22):
retirement plan actually float? The surprising math behind ditching your
driveway for a cruise ship. You're listening to Simply Money
presented by All with Financial on fifty five KRC, the
talk station. You're listening to Simply Money presented by All
(12:42):
wor Financial on Bob Sponseller along with Brian James. Are
you falling for costly money myths? We're gonna play some
financial planning factor fiction coming up at six forty three.
Gold is grabbing headlines again. Citybank just raised its three
month forecast to thirty five hundred dollars an ounce, expecting
a range of thirty three hundred to thirty six hundred.
(13:05):
And that's driven by key several key tailwinds I guess,
rising geopolitical tensions, a weakening US dollar, ongoing trade war fears,
and inflation concerns coming from said tariffs. Plus central banks
are buying gold at record rates. But before anyone starts
loading up, here's why caution matters, especially for high net
(13:27):
worth investors building generational wealth. Let's get into the whole
gold topic again.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Brian Well sentiment on gold and frankly, anything can move quickly.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
It's like a flock of birds.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
You don't know what direction it's going to go, but
it's all going to go at the same time and
very quickly. So uh So a lot of this comes
from geopolitical conflicts, uncertainty, you know, worry about the FED rate,
what's the you know what, what's your pal gonna do? Uh?
You know those kinds of things. Though, So if global
if global tensions go away and people get a little
more confident, then you're going to see gold fall. Uh
you know, it can go the other way, and the
(13:58):
safe haven that gold is known as can can fall apart.
So this question comes up frequently though, and what we
always look at it's just what is the long term?
But buying gold is is another way of timing the market.
People are simply trying to guess when the market, when
the opposite position, is going to do whatever it's going
to do. If I want to be aggressive, I'm in stocks.
If I feel like I should be conservative, then I
(14:19):
might be attracted to gold. But at the end of
the day, that's still a market timing decision, and we
all know what happens to market timers. They eventually get
their heads handed to them. You can be right nine
times in a row, and be wrong to tenth and
you'll be right back at the beginning having lost a
lot of time. Gold. Don't spit out any income now.
Gold does not have a dividend. It is simply something
that is worth what everybody thinks it's worth, period, end
of story. It doesn't produce products, it doesn't have a
(14:41):
profit margin. It is simply what does the herd think
of it? Does the herd want it? Or does the
herd not want it? That's what it's not even. It's
a commodity, but at the same time, it doesn't even
have a utility like wheat. Wheat is also a commodity,
but we eat it. So therefore you can you can
calculate demand, and you can calculate profit margin off of it.
Gold sits there and we stare at So a little
bit different to think of. Think about, Brian.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
I was expecting you to spit out a completely different
answer today. And here's what I mean. You are a
chat GBT whiz and I was expecting you to come
out and maybe you can do this next week. Uh,
you can do a little bit of data mining here
and come up with a great arbitrage strategy to simultaneously
(15:24):
short gold and buy bitco cooin or vice versa, and
tell us all how to make a bunch of money
in a very short period of time. You willing to
do that work for us?
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Andy Stout is twitching somewhere and he doesn't know why.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
We don't care what anything.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
We would hate to hear you talking right now, We
don't all.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Right, Imagine waking up a new port every few days,
Breakfast is served pool side, You got live shows, fitness classes,
you don't have to cook, no lawn to mow, no upkeep.
Sounds like paradise, right, Well, some people have actually decided
to do this, create this lifestyle for the rest of
(16:00):
their lives. Yep, that's right. They have decided to retire
on a cruise ship. Brian, I have never been on
a cruise in my life, and I have no intention
of ever going on one. Have you been on a cruise?
And more importantly, would you love to retire on a
cruise ship?
Speaker 2 (16:19):
You know, this is one of those things where the
brochure might be cooler than the reality. It sounds like
it's fun for the first maybe three days. But anyway,
let's get give the details of this, I'm not sure
I'm gonna give you. I'll have to get back to
you on that. So a new ship called the Villa
vill Odyssey has launched the program because they call live
at Sea two hundred and ninety nine thousand for a
cabin and then one hundred thousand dollars per year to
(16:39):
stay full time. That includes rent, food, entertainment, laundry, and
of course awful karaoke is in the package.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
We love that.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
So think about it this way, if we just do
the math, you could spend eight nine thousand dollars a
month cruising full time. And honestly, the math, the math
isn't crazy. Here three hundred thousand bucks for a place
to live and then living expensive of one hundred thousand
dollars a year, that's fairly over. This's eight thousand, nine
thousand dollars a month worth of living expenses, and again
that includes a lot of the things you're gonna need
to deal with during retirement. Anyway, these high ends senior
(17:09):
living communities are are are in that neighborhood anyway, and
they don't have a midnight buffe, you know, view beautiful
views every other day, and of course terrible karaoke. I'm
gonna keep coming back to terrible karaoke because that's probably
the killer for me here.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
All right, I say no thanks to this one. This
hearkens me back to one of my favorite all time movies,
Chevy Chase and Vacation where Clark Riswold and his family
pulls up to that campsite out in the middle of
nowhere and he shocked at the cost of those little
galow cabins, and the guy at the counter says, yep,
but that includes a pool and wildlife fun. You remember
(17:46):
that movie, Brian and chasing ducks geese or duck swimming
in the pool? Yeah, no thanks, all right, every Sunday
you'll find our all worth advice in the Cincinnati Choir.
Here's a preview Brian Early in pleasant Ridge. Ass, I'm
fifty eight and i just inherit a large amount of money,
and I'm a little overwhelmed. You got any.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Advice, certainly? And then everything we know about Charlie's situation
is in those those three facts. His name's Charlie, he
lives in pleasant Ridge, and he inherited a bunch of
money at the age of fifty eight.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Four facts.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
So first thing, Charlie, I'm gonna tell you is take
a breath. Right He did not. Charlie did not lead
with I've got this problem, I got this mortgage, or
i'morried about that or whatever. He led with this pile
of money dropped out of the sky, and that's all
he gave us. What that tells me is Charlie probably
does not have anything absolutely screaming for money right now.
So he doesn't I'm gonna guess he doesn't have a
choice to make to fix an immediate problem. What that
(18:38):
tells me right there is take a breath, Let things settle.
There is nothing that says you have got to act
on anything just because the probate process has ended for
whoever it was that passed in this case. So then
you can prioritize. I would always say, look look at
your emergency fund. Do you have enough cash laying around?
If you don't figure out what that dollar that dollar
amount should be thirty, you know, three six months worth
of expenses, carve that out, sit on it. Then you
(19:00):
can figure out what do you want to do, and
it could you're allowed to think about making your life better.
That is perfectly permissible there So, but again most importantly, Charlie,
just take a breath and let it, think of the
memories of your lost loved one and worry about the
big decisions later.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
That is fantastic advice. Sometimes the best advice is, like
Brian said, take a deep breath and do nothing. All right.
Wealth can open many doors, but it can also make
it harder to say no. We're going to help you
set clear, confident boundaries without guilt, and that's coming up next.
You're listening to Simply Money presented by all Worth Financial
on fifty five KRC the talk station. You're listening to
(19:41):
Simply Money presented by all Worth Financial on Bob's bon
Seller along with Brian James. When you've achieved financial success,
it often comes with some unspoken expectations, perhaps from friends,
extended family, even distant acquaintances. Whether it's a request cost
sign alone for example, or invest in a business idea
(20:02):
or fund of family members emergency. Saying no could feel
awkward at best and guilt inducing at worst. Brian, I've
had situations like this come up several times over the
years and years I've been doing this.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
What about you, Oh yeah, absolutely, it comes up all
the time within family, dynamics. So we all want to
support our children and you, our our siblings and our
extended families when we can. Stuff happens, life happens to everybody,
and it's good to have that family network around you
that can kind of step in. However, it can totally backfire.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Of course.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
We all run into these horror stories every now and then.
I think, I think, really the one that jumps off
the page to me is co signing alone. I have
I have just never heard of a situation where this ended. Well,
if you're asked to co sign alone, that means whoever
is asking you has been turned down by the banks
unless someone else's credit can back them up. That means
that the banks out there think that this person is
not going to be able to pay these bills. And
if you're co signing alone, then you are you are
(20:54):
on that loan as if you were borrowing the money yourself.
That you don't have any more protection than if you
were literally borrowing to our signing that mortgage your absolute self.
So just know that if you agree with the bank
maybe this person isn't going to be good for it,
then you are probably gonna get stuck with that bill.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Well, maybe without getting too off on a religious tangent,
maybe that maybe that's illustrative of why in the Bible
it warns us against co signing for other people's loans. Right,
maybe God, even Jesus pretty smart after all. All right, hey,
but the point we're trying to make here is constantly
saying yes to other people when they know you've got
(21:28):
some money, and they think, well, he or she's got
a lot of money. It doesn't matter they can quote
unquote afford it. It can set unsustainable expectations and quietly
erode your own autonomy over your own money. And that
emotional weight that you carry around could be exhausting, leading
(21:48):
to resentment or burnout or just fracture relationships if it's
not managed correctly.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Yeah, and so I think, so get creative, right, It
doesn't have to be a hard no, it can, first
of all, be not right now. Or let's pretend you'
give an example of this from a real client, So
how we found a solution. So let's say that you know,
the client's kid wants to buy a house and the
banks aren't willing to lend at at a reasonable rate.
So the client says, well, all step and all co
sign the mortgage and we'll go from there. Well, then,
obviously we've talked about what exposure that lead. So what
(22:16):
if the compromise point is, Okay, you're not happy in
your apartment right now, it's not big enough or whatever.
What if I gave you an extra few hundred dollars
every month, actually making an investment versus taking on a
much more massive risk, buy you some time, get you
in a nicer place, and then I will work with you,
child of mind, to get your finances looking better so
that maybe the next two or three years you can
do it without my help. That's kind of a middle ground,
(22:36):
and it's actually an investment of dollars that you won't
see again. But at the same time, it might be
a lot better than putting yourself a risk for several
hundred thousand dollars should your kid not be able to
make that payment.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
I like where you're going there, because there's a big
difference between just saying flat out no and never helping
a loved one or a child or what have you,
versus partnering with that loved one to help. You know,
whether you say coach them or counsel them or assist
them in becoming financially responsible, and you help them bridge
(23:07):
that gap between just learning about money and getting them
to where they can manage their own affairs. And that's
really what we're talking about here, coaching people to be responsive,
responsible versus just enabling them to have what they feel
they want or deserve. That's what we're really trying to
get into here.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Yeah, for sure, and again you are not rejecting a
person and you're not saying no, You're saying no butt
and then come up with a solution that could get
them across the finish line.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
You're listening to simply money presented by All with Financial
and Bob Sponseller along with Brian James, let's get into
how to maybe prepare to say no in a dignified
way for everyone. And this comes down to some communication
and advanced planning. I like things like this. Try some
responses like hey, I care deeply about you, but I've
(23:55):
made a commitment to keep financial matters separate from personal relationships.
I think that's a good line to use when we're
dealing with maybe parties outside of our family, where we
just get we get bombarded with requests from charities and
other people coming at us asking for money.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
And I think what you're really talking about there is
just just have a policy, sit down and think in advance.
If you think this is coming, then give yourself some
time to figure out what do I really believe here?
What is my policy as to whether I would do this?
And I'm not talking about something necessarily for write down
unless that works for you to kind of cement it
into your brain. But just give some forethought and then
then you'll know how to respond rather than stuttering and
(24:32):
stammering when the question arises.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
Here's another good response. You could say something like, hey,
this isn't something I can support financially, but I'm happy
to help brainstorm other solutions with you. You're inviting that
person into more of a relationship to coach them through
helping them solve some of their financial problems versus just
pulling out the checkbook and writing a check and hoping
(24:55):
it all works out.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
And you shouldn't feel pressure to answer right away, right
And I think of a quick yes or a quick
no tells this person one of two things. A quick
ass says, well, hey, this is easy. This, I guess
is just how the world works, and it's just easy
to get money. A no will tell them this person
doesn't care about me, So tell them, even if you
already know your answer, tell them, I need to think
about this. This is a huge decision and both of
us are going to be impacted by it one way
(25:17):
or another. And I really have got to put some
plot into this. Then you can come back with your response,
even if you already knew what it was. Give it
some time to percolate.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
Yeah, and one other thing to point out here, you
don't owe anyone more than maybe a few second explanation.
If you get into a twenty minute explanation on why
you don't want to give them money, the longer you
just drivel on and talk and talk and talk, you know,
it quickly comes across. As you're rationalizing, you feel guilty
and uncomfortable. And the way you're managing yourself through this
(25:46):
is just by talking and talking and talking about all
the reasons why you're going to say no. That can
make that other person feel very uncomfortable as well. And
there's no need to go there.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
And we can find out that there's a lot more
to a relationship like that. Suddenly it becomes not about money,
It becomes a interpersonal stuff.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
Yeah. And then lastly, and I tell clients this all
the time, Brian, blame me, Blame your financial advisor. For
those that work with a financial advisor, they can serve
as a helpful buffer in these conversations as well. You
heard it here, folks, it's Bob's fault. Well, but referring
financial request to your advisor, you know, puts that buffer
(26:22):
if it needs to be there between you and your money.
And yeah, you can blame somebody else, someone your fiduciary
advisor that's looking out for you, and let the financial
advisor come up with that quick twenty second response on
why we can't go there where we all know we're
being asked to make a decision that might not be
in the best interest of all parties. Here's the all
(26:42):
Worth advice. Protecting your well starts with setting boundaries that
align with your values, because saying no is sometimes the
smartest financial decision you can make. Coming up next, see
if you can separate fact from fiction before it costs
you big time. You're listening to some Money presented by
all Worth Financial on fifty five KRC, the talk station.
(27:09):
You're listening to simply money presented by all Worth Financial.
I'm Bob Sponsler along with Brian James. You have a
financial question for us, There's a red button you can
click while you're listening to the show right there on
the iHeart app. Simply record your question and it will
come straight to us. All right, Brian, it's time to
play financial planning fact or fiction. I'll let you have
(27:30):
the easy one. First fact fact or fiction. You don't
need bonds in your portfolio once you retire. Brian, I
don't know about easy. I'm gonna call that one faction, right.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
It's a little above so bonds in your portfolio Normally,
historically we've recognized that bonds can be kind of the
rudder for the portfolio to smooth out the tougher times.
Over the past couple decades, the behavior of bonds has
kind of shifted. Everything gets speculated on no matter what
it is, bond moves. Bonds move with interest rates, and
we have absolutely had very different interest rate environment it's
over the prior couple of decades than we had for
(28:02):
the century prior to that. So the way I here's
I don't know, you tell me. Here's how I talked
to my clients about it. I don't really want to
necessarily make a portfolio conservative simply because someone is now
fits under the definition of retire. That's not the trigger
for me. The trigger for me is when do we
need these specific dollars. Some people are in a situation
where they don't. They've got income coming in from I
don't know, rental properties, or maybe they still own a
(28:23):
chunk of the business they used to run, whatever, and
maybe they don't need these investments. So that means or
they have a pension. Yeah, you know, pension, so scary.
Maybe that pays the bills. That's fine to me. That
pushes out the need for these particular invested dollars out
you know, ten twenty. Sometimes it really isn't even an
horizon where it's needed. So in that case, sure, let's
sty aggressive and continue to grow. Why wouldn't we Otherwise
we're taking it out of our kids' mouths Ultimately, So
(28:44):
that situation itself means I don't necessarily need bonds because
it's just something different. And if I do want a rudder,
there are other options out there. I can do both gfs,
I can do some I can arrange my investments in
another way and create that rudder.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
No, I think you hit the nail on the head.
There comes down to a the individual clients financial plan
and retirement income plan. And then second they're emotional tolerance
for a risk. It's not a one size fits all situation. Yeah,
all right, here coming at you. Now, it's your turn
for what I think is an easy one. But let's
see what Bob says.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
Buying municipal bonds is a better move when you're in
a high tax bracket factor fiction.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
Mobel, I would say, fact here, it certainly can be,
but you got to run the numbers. And I had
a client where we actually did that here recently, and
they're sitting on a boatload of cash and they feel
great about the gross marginal interest rate they're getting on
that cash, and they've got a bunch of municipal bonds
(29:39):
elsewhere in their portfolio. And I just had the conversation like, hey,
do you understand what you're actually netting here, net of
taxes and inflation by sitting on all this cash. And
this was a very smart person, very numbers oriented, And
their answer to me was, yes, I understand. I just
like holding all that cash. It makes me feel better
(30:02):
just knowing I can get to it. So it's just
you got to look at the gross you know, the
gross yield versus the net yield, look at your tax
situation and make sure you're going in or with your
eyes wide open on what you actually own, and if
you feel okay with it, fine, but at least know
what you've got.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
So I want to weigh in on this a little
bit because this is another thing I've been given some
thought to, and this is this could affect me personally
and SOMETI I'm starting to talking to my clients about
if I want better. You know, the whole point of
municipal is tax free, right, that's what we want. But
you can do that a couple of ways. One thing
I'm thinking about doing when I get to that point,
I've got another ten years or so. I'm thinking of
overstuffing my wroth IRA with megaback door four and K contributions,
(30:39):
backdoor contributions or whatever, and just knowing that that money
I'm carving out is my emergency fund and I'll stick
it in a you know, in a money market fund
that a bank might have. I could be getting four
or five percent on my wroth IRA if in my
brain I know that's my emergency fund, and I could
quickly move money to my checking account. Now I got
the best of both worlds. I get high rates of
return but no taxes.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
The key there, and what you said is your getting
out in front of it, you know, ten years in
advance and doing some you know, advanced planning. Not everybody
does that. And for folks that sell a business and
get a big whopping paycheck, they don't have that option
available to them. But no great discussion, all right, Brian Factor. Fiction,
having multiple financial advisors is a smart way to diversify
(31:19):
your advice.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Yeah, this one again. I'm gonna go with fiction on
this one because I just feel like, you know, whenever
somebody has multiple advisors, they're never happy because they're hearing
from they have to baby sit two different people. They're
hearing slightly differing points of view, even if both advisors
are really stronger. Sometimes there's three or four, but it
just seems to cloud all the decision making and they
can't commit, and it just really drags everything out that
(31:43):
they want to do. So find one that you trust
and move on. So think of this way. You might
get a second opinion from a doctor, but you don't
have both doctors perform the actual You pick one to
do the actual procedure. You're not gonna get procedure done twice.
With financial planning, you can have everything done twice if
you really want to. But it's really going to throw
an anchor in your overall comfort. It makes you your
own financial advisor because you're responsible to decide who's right.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
I don't think that could be said any better. That
is spot on, all right. Factor fiction, Brian. A five
to twenty nine plan can be converted into a raw ira.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
Fact fact fact fact fact. This is my favorite new
cool rule here. So so with the new rule came out,
five pointy nine plans, as we know are are tax
free if they're pulled out used for college tuition, books,
room board. That's the way it's been for decades. But
the concern in the past has been that I don't
want to put money in my five twenty nine because
I don't know if this newborn baby, or perhaps this
child who doesn't even exist yet, that's another thing you
(32:33):
can do. I don't know if this person's gonna be
gonna go to college, maybe they're gonna go a full ride.
I won't need these dollars, So then are not losing out?
The answer is now not at all, because there are
new rules in place as of twenty twenty four that
will allow you to As long as the account, the
five to one nine has been in existence for fifteen years,
you can contribute over time up to thirty five thousand
dollars from the five twenty nine two year wroth just
(32:54):
using that thirty five thousand dollars over three four years
as the annual contribution to the roth IRA. So if
you think about this, I love this thought, Bob. So
if I fund this, Let's say I find out my
adult child is pregnant, and now I know within the
next year something I'm going to have a baby. I
can fund that account now, and that money could grow
for sixty five years until my grandchild actually retires. That
(33:16):
is an absolutely enormous amount of money. If you want
to think lump sums, you can put twelve in now,
It'll be worth thirty five by the time they're eighteen,
and now you have funded a wroth irate contributions for
until they're inner mid twenties and hopefully really really stable.
I love that rule.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
No, it's a great rule and I think this just
the overall arching theme here is never give up those
wrath dollars until you absolutely have to, because that compounded
long term growth is a powerful, powerful thing. All right,
factor fiction and I'll take this one. An inheritance plan
is more important than in a state plan, Brian, I
(33:49):
don't think I even understand the question here, but I
think what they're some Let you take that.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
I don't get that either, so go to Well, the.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
Only way I can interpret this is an estate plan.
I think when people think of in a state plan,
I think they're talking about illegal documents, you know, and
a lot of times people don't read them. There's a
lot of boilerplate legal ees in them. The difference in
an inheritance plan is you're actually communicating and making very
clear to your heirs and your beneficiaries what you want
(34:17):
this money to do for them and win. And I
think that comes down to actual communication rather than just
drafting and leaving to someone this complicated document that just
appears out of the desk drawer after you pass away.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
Yeah. I think this might be referring to an unfunded trust,
which happens when you run across a lawyer who may
be perfectly well meaning, and they want to have you
write up trust document. That could be perfectly fine, but
if you never put anything in the trust, meaning you've
literally gone to your investment firms, you've named the trust
as beneficiary or even as the owner, that trust doesn't
do squat bob until something till it owns something.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
Coming up next, you'll get my two cents on some
additional estate planning considerations. You're listening to Simply Money, presented
by all Worth Financial on fifty five K or see
the talk station. You're listening to Simple Money because all
With Financial sponsor ar along with Brian James and Brian
(35:11):
I want to take a couple of seconds here and
just talk about an actual story client story. I ran
across here recently, and I think it illustrates something that
a lot of people should be doing and rarely do,
and that's actually review your estate planning documents every so often.
And here's why, Brian. I had a client and this
is an elderly woman that actually lived down in Alabama
(35:35):
and she left her nephew as her power of attorney. Okay,
everything good so far. However, the power of attorney document
did not allow this nephew to make any changes to
beneficiaries in any of her accounts. Well, what he did
was he set up the account for him to run,
you know, the account, and he named transfer on death beneficiaries.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
And that's fun.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
Well, this lady ended up passing away and we're trying
to get the estate settled and get all the money
moving around where it needs to go. And the custodial
firm you know, rejected moving this to that nephew's account,
you know, per the beneficiaries that were set up because
the power of attorney document did not allow this individual
(36:23):
to name beneficiaries. And this is something that should have
and could have been caught years and years ago and
made you know, provisions for that. Instead, we had to
help the client get an attorney down in Alabama take
the thing through probate court, and it took about two
months to get all this sorted out. And it was
just an unnecessary delay in probating and settling this woman's
(36:48):
estate that could have been avoided if those documents had
not been reviewed periodically and make the necessary adjustments. I
just call that out as a reminder. Review what you've got,
just set it and forget it and pull these things
out down the road because you could be in for surprise.
Speaker 2 (37:04):
So I got a little war story from the trenches too,
from last week. So that's a client of mine that
pass away, unfortunately, and at some point we had asked
multiple times to get a hold of the trust document
that they could never locate it. The trust in this
case was only the beneficiary didn't own anything. It was
named as the beneficiary, so we didn't really need it,
but obviously we like to have it on file for
this exact reason. No one knows where this trust document is,
(37:26):
so all we know is that the name of it
and the date of it, but we can't figure out
who we need to legally be talking to to retitle
these assets. So the moral of that story is make
sure that your financial advisors, your banks make sure that
they have something on file. They should have asked you
for the trust document itself, or what's called a trustee certification,
which basically pulls out the important details and you sign
a form saying yes, it was dated this date. Here
are the trustees, here's the success or trustee, and here's
(37:48):
how to get a hold of us. So make sure
you've done that, otherwise you don't have much of a
planet place.
Speaker 1 (37:52):
Well. I don't know about you, Brian, but sometimes when
I ask clients or prospective clients to review this stuff,
they look at me like, are you really gonna make
me dig this stuff out? And I'm like, yes, I am.
I mean, that's our job, and some people don't initially
want to think of that as our job, but boy,
if you can get out in front of this stuff,
(38:12):
you know, people thank us after the fact, because this
stuff really does need to be reviewed every two, three,
four years just to make sure this estate plan is
actually set up to do what you actually intended for
it to do when you had the documents drafted. It's
very very important in something that we stress with our
clients all the time. Thanks for listening. You've been listening
(38:34):
to Simply Money, presented by all Worth Financial on fifty
five KRC the talk station
Tonight it's would you Rather Retirement? Edition? You're listening to
Simply Money because by all with financial I'm Bob spun
Seller along with Brian James. It's Friday, and we're gonna
try to have a little bit of fun here, but
hopefully with at least a little bit of purpose, because,
let's face it, retirement planning is full of tough decisions.
That tonight we are gonna try to turn them into
(00:27):
a little bit of a game. We're gonna throw out
real life scenarios that families face and see where we land,
and don't worry, we'll explain what these choices could mean
for your plan, your taxes, and your peace of mind.
All right, Brian, question number one, I'm throwing it to you.
Would you rather retire at fifty five with two million
dollars or at age sixty five with four million dollars?
Speaker 2 (00:52):
You know that that's an easy answer for me, Bob,
because I'm gonna say sixty five with four million, And
it's got more to do with the sixty five than
the four Because this is my situation. We don't talk
about ourselves a whole lot of very often, but I
like what I do. I sit at tables with people
who I enjoy, and we talk about stuff, and we
put together number puzzles, and I drink coffee and sometimes
we got to lunch and whatever. That every day it's
kind of fun. So for me, it's not about the
(01:15):
it's not about the pile of money. It's about the
If I win at fifty five, I'm not sure what
I would do with myself. I'd probably have the urge
to go do this for free because it just is enjoyable.
So I don't know. But what do you think you
have thought on that for you?
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Well, it's not just a thought for me, Brian, because
I'm right smack in the middle here. I'm sixty years
old and obviously I'm not retired yet. So my answer
runs along the same way as yours. I mean, I
do enjoy what I do, and it's good to get
paid to do what we do, and it's good to
have that. You know, pile of money continue to grow,
I guess so. But I think in terms of our listeners,
(01:50):
what you need to do is answer those questions for yourself.
The first question is how much money do I need
to have put away to afford to retire? Whether you
want to keep working or not, and then take a
look at getting into a situation where it's no longer
what you have to do, it's what you want to do.
And that's the sweet spot there of making a good
sound retirement age decision. All right, Question number two, Brian,
(02:14):
would you rather have a guaranteed five percent return every
year or take a shot at ten percent returns knowing
some years might be negative?
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Okay, so this one is less hypothetical than just plain reality.
If I'm gonna look at guaranteed type investments, then you know,
these are the kind of rates I can expect on
the around the five percent range. Yes, interest rates move around.
We're not talking about current rates and all that kind
of stuff. We're just talking on overtime. If I own
a pile of guaranteed type of investment instruments over the decades,
what would I've expected to have getten to have gotten
(02:45):
out of those? About five percent is about right. Ten
percent is a little mind blowing because we always tell
people and we build plans, we never use a ten
percent rate of return in a financial plan because that
just makes things look silly. That snowball effect is a
real thing, and it just it just makes it makes
it either causes people to mist trust completely those numbers
or it causes them to feel way too confident. So
we always use, you know, for a yearage investment more
(03:06):
like six eight percent. Let's make sure if you're an
aggressive investor, you know, let's use that and see how
it goes. Now, that set ten percent returns is the
long term average of the overall stock market. So despite
everything we've been through, despite the two thousand and eights,
in the twenty twenty twos and the O two's and
all those scary years, if you sat and never touched
your investments again, and you just owned a bunch of stocks,
(03:26):
well diversified, then you've got about ten percent. We keep hearing,
I think we talked about it recently. We keep hearing
that we should expect less out of the stock market.
But I've heard that, Bob since the late nineties, when
when the first Internet bubble that was led by Yahoo
of all companies have my members at, I heard that
once that fell apart, we all should have lower expectations.
Yet that hasn't come so personally to answer, I'm getting
(03:48):
long winded. But to answer that question, I'll take my
shot at ten percent returns because a lot of my
nest egg we're in unfortunate question. It's going to sit
here and go to my kids, so it can grow
for another thirty forty years. So I lean toward the
gros side and not the guarantee.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
How about you, Well, I fall somewhere in the middle,
and I start to gravitate toward the middle. I'm older
than you, so I'm closer to that age where this
this pile of money, as you say, needs to turn
into a paycheck. So I like having some of both,
because having growth but also minimizing a little bit some
(04:19):
of the volatility that tends to make your financial plan
work a little better.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
And so that's where fifty one, Bob, can you explain
to me how a rotary phone works?
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Maybe?
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Yeah, maybe, maybe another time.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
I think we'll do that in another segment. All right,
let's move on to question three, and I'll take this
one first. Would you rather give your kids five hundred
thousand dollars now or leave them one million dollars later? Brian,
I'm starting to live this now because my kids are
all grown adults, out of college. They're self sufficient, they've
(04:54):
got jobs, and my thought process on. This has changed
and is evolving as I watch them function and getting
married and buy their first homes and all that. For me,
it's not about five hundred thousand dollars or a million dollars.
It's just I think it's best again if they are
living responsibly and I can see evidence that they're doing planning,
(05:16):
budgeting well, doing all the right things. I don't know, Brian,
sometimes a two to five thousand dollars help with replacing
their furnace or doing something around their home, or putting
it into a five twenty nine plan for grandkids, that
really moves the needle for a young you know, growing family,
(05:38):
and it's much more beneficial to them to have a
little bit of that money now to get them out
of a pinch or keep them out of a pinch.
Then dumping you know, a million, two three million dollars
on them, you know, in thirty years won't really matter
to them. So that's my answer to that question.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Yeah, I completely agree with that. I think everybody needs
to get smacked around by life a little bit just
to just to kind of to get your head on straight.
And if if you're handing your kid's money that you
earned through your hard work. They will not have the
same life experience as you that got that hard work
got you where you are. Don't rob them of the
ability to earn that themselves. Think of this way, like
you just said, Bob, If you can swoop in every
(06:15):
now and then and give them a few thousand bucks
because the car died or or you know, or God forbid,
the air conditioner quit, that's a little bit bit of
a bigger expense. But regardless, you can help them out
with those things. That will take a little bit of
the edge off, but it will also allow them to
take a breath and realize that, Okay, we don't want
to go through that again. So maybe we should have
our own emergency fund, because I don't want mom and
Dad to always feel like they have to swoop in
(06:36):
versus give them a half million dollars. Now, it's probably
going to be spent pretty quick because we all would
without the benefit of life experience. We all would gravitate
toward fixing the problem the easiest way possible, which is,
let's write a big check out of this money that
we didn't know we were going to have anyway.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
So well, and that takes me back to my childhood
days where my mom would sit there and serve us,
and she was a wonderful cooked and cooked us a
balanced meal every day that included like salad and vegetables.
And she would always say, Bobby, if you don't eat
your vegetables, you're not gonna get any dessert. So you
(07:11):
know there's there was some assistance there.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Now, can you have any pudding if you don't eat
your meat?
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Boby? That's right. So you know we help our kids
a little bit, but we also have some boundaries and
that's that just is what makes the world go around,
all right, Brian? Would you rather pay your mortgage off
before you retire or keep a low rate mortgage and
invest the cash?
Speaker 2 (07:31):
This is the easy one to me. Math is math
is math. So low rate mortgage, especially if you're somebody
with one of those two point seventy five three percent mortgages,
Believe it or not, that debt is the best asset
you own because it allows you to free up your
dollars to do other stuff. If you're getting five six
you know, even we just talked a little bit about
the markets, evere ten percent over the long haul, this
is a math question. I would keep the mortgage at
a low rate and invest that cash. If you're this
(07:54):
is a little nerve wracking. People don't want to retire
with a mortgage. I don't either, But this is a
screaming you know, if I've got a thirty year mortgage
with a lot left on it, ever attire, that just
screams leave it alone if it's at a low rate. Now,
on the other hand, if it's a small you know,
maybe I had a thirty year and it's at a
low rate, but maybe there's only twenty thirty forty thousand
on it and I've got a nest, then then you
might split the difference, take take some just to pay
(08:15):
it down. That way, it'll be paid off sooner. But
I would definitely not sacrifice that even if if you're
not comfortable with the cash flow, if you want some
assistance with that on a monthly basis, that's very understandable.
Spend some of that cash, use it. You know, if
this is not an all or one decision, maybe you
take five hundred dollars out of this other other pile
of cash you've got, start taking distributions out of it
to get the mortgage paid down a little more quickly.
(08:37):
In addition to what you're already paying anyway, So that
way you've kind of you're on both sides of the
fence with I've invested my pile of money wherever that
came from, and I've assisted my cash flow here in
the short run, but something is going to grow. I
don't know if you've any differently about that.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
No, I'm in complete alignment on that, all right. Question
number five, would you rather delay social Security at age
seventy for a bigger paycheck or take it at sixty
two and invest it? Brian, I'll try to tackle this one.
I'm interested in your thoughts as well. I don't know
about you, Brian. I have no clients, exactly zero that
are taking their Social Security check at sixty two and
(09:14):
directly putting that into an investment account. If they're taking
their Social Security at sixty two or sixty three or
sixty five, they're using it, They're spending it, They're using
it as a source of retirement income, so they can
leave their investment portfolio alone and not take monthly systematic,
you know, distributions from that. You know, So, I mean,
(09:37):
do you have people at sixty two that take Social
Security early and invest that money.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
No, not at all, And because exactly if if somebody
is in that situation then you know they don't need
the money, well, that means they're probably working and that's
where their income's coming from. If they're working, then they're
gonna run into something called the Social Security earnings test.
That basically means you're gonna give back a chunk of it.
So now you double down on the bad idea part
of this because it'll be less anyway, because you at age
sixty two, if you are earning more than about twenty
(10:03):
two thousand dollars, then you're going to start to give
back junks to that Social Security Yes, you'll get you'll
get that back eventually. That's another segment, but it's not
worth it.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
You're listening to Simply Money presented by all Worth Financial.
I'm Bob Sponseller along with Brian James. Brian, I'm dying
to hear your answer to this next question. Would you
rather retire with fewer dollars in a tax free wroth
IRA account or more dollars in a taxable IRA.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
You know, at this point I'll just answer this my
current situation because that this comes up with all the
time with people who you know, if you've been working
for thirty years, then you probably didn't have a didn't
have the option to go wroth roth didn't exist in
four to one k's, you know, really only the ten
last ten to fifteen years maybe where I'm starting to
see it just about available everywhere. It has not existed
for the entire twenty five years that you've been able
(10:51):
to do a roth Ira. So my point in all
of this is, I have a lot of people who
have a substantial amount of money, of a portion of
their nest egg that's tied up on the retax side,
and I all include myself, and I'm going to go
out on them. Guess you're in this situation because anybody
who worked for the past thirty years probably has most
of those dollars sitting on the pre tax side.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
That means I hate paying taxes, Brian, That's another way
to think about it.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
So we've tied ourselves up for significant required minimum distributions,
so I'm offsetting that and some this may be a
bad decision. Ask me in thirty years, I am teeing
myself up to where we are paying taxes. Now, we're
making wroth ira contra or WROTH four O one K
contributions despite the fact that we are in the highest
bracket will ever be in. And I know that consciously,
but it's the only way I'm ever going to have
(11:34):
a tax free pile of money. And I do know
that my happiest clients, or at least the ones who
get least anger at the irs, are the ones who
took the time to build a tax free pile of
money along time alongside their pretax that gives them options.
They have the ability to choose in a given tax
year based on whatever else is going on. Maybe we
need to hit the income taxable stuff, or no, this
is a spendye tax year, so we're going to hit
(11:54):
the wroth for this side of things. I want that
option too. Those folks seem a lot happier.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Very interesting. See you're electing to pay a little taxes
now in order to buy yourself some flexibility down the road.
I love it. Here's the all Worth advice answer those
tough would you rather questions now before life just answers
them for you by default. All right, gold is soaring?
Should you buy more? Or are you literally walking the
plank here? And speaking of the high seas. Could your
(12:22):
retirement plan actually float? The surprising math behind ditching your
driveway for a cruise ship. You're listening to Simply Money
presented by All with Financial on fifty five KRC, the
talk station. You're listening to Simply Money presented by All
(12:42):
wor Financial on Bob Sponseller along with Brian James. Are
you falling for costly money myths? We're gonna play some
financial planning factor fiction coming up at six forty three.
Gold is grabbing headlines again. Citybank just raised its three
month forecast to thirty five hundred dollars an ounce, expecting
a range of thirty three hundred to thirty six hundred.
(13:05):
And that's driven by key several key tailwinds I guess,
rising geopolitical tensions, a weakening US dollar, ongoing trade war fears,
and inflation concerns coming from said tariffs. Plus central banks
are buying gold at record rates. But before anyone starts
loading up, here's why caution matters, especially for high net
(13:27):
worth investors building generational wealth. Let's get into the whole
gold topic again.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Brian Well sentiment on gold and frankly, anything can move quickly.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
It's like a flock of birds.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
You don't know what direction it's going to go, but
it's all going to go at the same time and
very quickly. So uh So a lot of this comes
from geopolitical conflicts, uncertainty, you know, worry about the FED rate,
what's the you know what, what's your pal gonna do? Uh?
You know those kinds of things. Though, So if global
if global tensions go away and people get a little
more confident, then you're going to see gold fall. Uh
you know, it can go the other way, and the
(13:58):
safe haven that gold is known as can can fall apart.
So this question comes up frequently though, and what we
always look at it's just what is the long term?
But buying gold is is another way of timing the market.
People are simply trying to guess when the market, when
the opposite position, is going to do whatever it's going
to do. If I want to be aggressive, I'm in stocks.
If I feel like I should be conservative, then I
(14:19):
might be attracted to gold. But at the end of
the day, that's still a market timing decision, and we
all know what happens to market timers. They eventually get
their heads handed to them. You can be right nine
times in a row, and be wrong to tenth and
you'll be right back at the beginning having lost a
lot of time. Gold. Don't spit out any income now.
Gold does not have a dividend. It is simply something
that is worth what everybody thinks it's worth, period, end
of story. It doesn't produce products, it doesn't have a
(14:41):
profit margin. It is simply what does the herd think
of it? Does the herd want it? Or does the
herd not want it? That's what it's not even. It's
a commodity, but at the same time, it doesn't even
have a utility like wheat. Wheat is also a commodity,
but we eat it. So therefore you can you can
calculate demand, and you can calculate profit margin off of it.
Gold sits there and we stare at So a little
bit different to think of. Think about, Brian.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
I was expecting you to spit out a completely different
answer today. And here's what I mean. You are a
chat GBT whiz and I was expecting you to come
out and maybe you can do this next week. Uh,
you can do a little bit of data mining here
and come up with a great arbitrage strategy to simultaneously
(15:24):
short gold and buy bitco cooin or vice versa, and
tell us all how to make a bunch of money
in a very short period of time. You willing to
do that work for us?
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Andy Stout is twitching somewhere and he doesn't know why.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
We don't care what anything.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
We would hate to hear you talking right now, We
don't all.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Right, Imagine waking up a new port every few days,
Breakfast is served pool side, You got live shows, fitness classes,
you don't have to cook, no lawn to mow, no upkeep.
Sounds like paradise, right, Well, some people have actually decided
to do this, create this lifestyle for the rest of
(16:00):
their lives. Yep, that's right. They have decided to retire
on a cruise ship. Brian, I have never been on
a cruise in my life, and I have no intention
of ever going on one. Have you been on a cruise?
And more importantly, would you love to retire on a
cruise ship?
Speaker 2 (16:19):
You know, this is one of those things where the
brochure might be cooler than the reality. It sounds like
it's fun for the first maybe three days. But anyway,
let's get give the details of this, I'm not sure
I'm gonna give you. I'll have to get back to
you on that. So a new ship called the Villa
vill Odyssey has launched the program because they call live
at Sea two hundred and ninety nine thousand for a
cabin and then one hundred thousand dollars per year to
(16:39):
stay full time. That includes rent, food, entertainment, laundry, and
of course awful karaoke is in the package.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
We love that.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
So think about it this way, if we just do
the math, you could spend eight nine thousand dollars a
month cruising full time. And honestly, the math, the math
isn't crazy. Here three hundred thousand bucks for a place
to live and then living expensive of one hundred thousand
dollars a year, that's fairly over. This's eight thousand, nine
thousand dollars a month worth of living expenses, and again
that includes a lot of the things you're gonna need
to deal with during retirement. Anyway, these high ends senior
(17:09):
living communities are are are in that neighborhood anyway, and
they don't have a midnight buffe, you know, view beautiful
views every other day, and of course terrible karaoke. I'm
gonna keep coming back to terrible karaoke because that's probably
the killer for me here.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
All right, I say no thanks to this one. This
hearkens me back to one of my favorite all time movies,
Chevy Chase and Vacation where Clark Riswold and his family
pulls up to that campsite out in the middle of
nowhere and he shocked at the cost of those little
galow cabins, and the guy at the counter says, yep,
but that includes a pool and wildlife fun. You remember
(17:46):
that movie, Brian and chasing ducks geese or duck swimming
in the pool? Yeah, no thanks, all right, every Sunday
you'll find our all worth advice in the Cincinnati Choir.
Here's a preview Brian Early in pleasant Ridge. Ass, I'm
fifty eight and i just inherit a large amount of money,
and I'm a little overwhelmed. You got any.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Advice, certainly? And then everything we know about Charlie's situation
is in those those three facts. His name's Charlie, he
lives in pleasant Ridge, and he inherited a bunch of
money at the age of fifty eight.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Four facts.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
So first thing, Charlie, I'm gonna tell you is take
a breath. Right He did not. Charlie did not lead
with I've got this problem, I got this mortgage, or
i'morried about that or whatever. He led with this pile
of money dropped out of the sky, and that's all
he gave us. What that tells me is Charlie probably
does not have anything absolutely screaming for money right now.
So he doesn't I'm gonna guess he doesn't have a
choice to make to fix an immediate problem. What that
(18:38):
tells me right there is take a breath, Let things settle.
There is nothing that says you have got to act
on anything just because the probate process has ended for
whoever it was that passed in this case. So then
you can prioritize. I would always say, look look at
your emergency fund. Do you have enough cash laying around?
If you don't figure out what that dollar that dollar
amount should be thirty, you know, three six months worth
of expenses, carve that out, sit on it. Then you
(19:00):
can figure out what do you want to do, and
it could you're allowed to think about making your life better.
That is perfectly permissible there So, but again most importantly, Charlie,
just take a breath and let it, think of the
memories of your lost loved one and worry about the
big decisions later.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
That is fantastic advice. Sometimes the best advice is, like
Brian said, take a deep breath and do nothing. All right.
Wealth can open many doors, but it can also make
it harder to say no. We're going to help you
set clear, confident boundaries without guilt, and that's coming up next.
You're listening to Simply Money presented by all Worth Financial
on fifty five KRC the talk station. You're listening to
(19:41):
Simply Money presented by all Worth Financial on Bob's bon
Seller along with Brian James. When you've achieved financial success,
it often comes with some unspoken expectations, perhaps from friends,
extended family, even distant acquaintances. Whether it's a request cost
sign alone for example, or invest in a business idea
(20:02):
or fund of family members emergency. Saying no could feel
awkward at best and guilt inducing at worst. Brian, I've
had situations like this come up several times over the
years and years I've been doing this.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
What about you, Oh yeah, absolutely, it comes up all
the time within family, dynamics. So we all want to
support our children and you, our our siblings and our
extended families when we can. Stuff happens, life happens to everybody,
and it's good to have that family network around you
that can kind of step in. However, it can totally backfire.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Of course.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
We all run into these horror stories every now and then.
I think, I think, really the one that jumps off
the page to me is co signing alone. I have
I have just never heard of a situation where this ended. Well,
if you're asked to co sign alone, that means whoever
is asking you has been turned down by the banks
unless someone else's credit can back them up. That means
that the banks out there think that this person is
not going to be able to pay these bills. And
if you're co signing alone, then you are you are
(20:54):
on that loan as if you were borrowing the money yourself.
That you don't have any more protection than if you
were literally borrowing to our signing that mortgage your absolute self.
So just know that if you agree with the bank
maybe this person isn't going to be good for it,
then you are probably gonna get stuck with that bill.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Well, maybe without getting too off on a religious tangent,
maybe that maybe that's illustrative of why in the Bible
it warns us against co signing for other people's loans. Right,
maybe God, even Jesus pretty smart after all. All right, hey,
but the point we're trying to make here is constantly
saying yes to other people when they know you've got
(21:28):
some money, and they think, well, he or she's got
a lot of money. It doesn't matter they can quote
unquote afford it. It can set unsustainable expectations and quietly
erode your own autonomy over your own money. And that
emotional weight that you carry around could be exhausting, leading
(21:48):
to resentment or burnout or just fracture relationships if it's
not managed correctly.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Yeah, and so I think, so get creative, right, It
doesn't have to be a hard no, it can, first
of all, be not right now. Or let's pretend you'
give an example of this from a real client, So
how we found a solution. So let's say that you know,
the client's kid wants to buy a house and the
banks aren't willing to lend at at a reasonable rate.
So the client says, well, all step and all co
sign the mortgage and we'll go from there. Well, then,
obviously we've talked about what exposure that lead. So what
(22:16):
if the compromise point is, Okay, you're not happy in
your apartment right now, it's not big enough or whatever.
What if I gave you an extra few hundred dollars
every month, actually making an investment versus taking on a
much more massive risk, buy you some time, get you
in a nicer place, and then I will work with you,
child of mind, to get your finances looking better so
that maybe the next two or three years you can
do it without my help. That's kind of a middle ground,
(22:36):
and it's actually an investment of dollars that you won't
see again. But at the same time, it might be
a lot better than putting yourself a risk for several
hundred thousand dollars should your kid not be able to
make that payment.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
I like where you're going there, because there's a big
difference between just saying flat out no and never helping
a loved one or a child or what have you,
versus partnering with that loved one to help. You know,
whether you say coach them or counsel them or assist
them in becoming financially responsible, and you help them bridge
(23:07):
that gap between just learning about money and getting them
to where they can manage their own affairs. And that's
really what we're talking about here, coaching people to be responsive,
responsible versus just enabling them to have what they feel
they want or deserve. That's what we're really trying to
get into here.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Yeah, for sure, and again you are not rejecting a
person and you're not saying no, You're saying no butt
and then come up with a solution that could get
them across the finish line.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
You're listening to simply money presented by All with Financial
and Bob Sponseller along with Brian James, let's get into
how to maybe prepare to say no in a dignified
way for everyone. And this comes down to some communication
and advanced planning. I like things like this. Try some
responses like hey, I care deeply about you, but I've
(23:55):
made a commitment to keep financial matters separate from personal relationships.
I think that's a good line to use when we're
dealing with maybe parties outside of our family, where we
just get we get bombarded with requests from charities and
other people coming at us asking for money.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
And I think what you're really talking about there is
just just have a policy, sit down and think in advance.
If you think this is coming, then give yourself some
time to figure out what do I really believe here?
What is my policy as to whether I would do this?
And I'm not talking about something necessarily for write down
unless that works for you to kind of cement it
into your brain. But just give some forethought and then
then you'll know how to respond rather than stuttering and
(24:32):
stammering when the question arises.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
Here's another good response. You could say something like, hey,
this isn't something I can support financially, but I'm happy
to help brainstorm other solutions with you. You're inviting that
person into more of a relationship to coach them through
helping them solve some of their financial problems versus just
pulling out the checkbook and writing a check and hoping
(24:55):
it all works out.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
And you shouldn't feel pressure to answer right away, right
And I think of a quick yes or a quick
no tells this person one of two things. A quick
ass says, well, hey, this is easy. This, I guess
is just how the world works, and it's just easy
to get money. A no will tell them this person
doesn't care about me, So tell them, even if you
already know your answer, tell them, I need to think
about this. This is a huge decision and both of
us are going to be impacted by it one way
(25:17):
or another. And I really have got to put some
plot into this. Then you can come back with your response,
even if you already knew what it was. Give it
some time to percolate.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
Yeah, and one other thing to point out here, you
don't owe anyone more than maybe a few second explanation.
If you get into a twenty minute explanation on why
you don't want to give them money, the longer you
just drivel on and talk and talk and talk, you know,
it quickly comes across. As you're rationalizing, you feel guilty
and uncomfortable. And the way you're managing yourself through this
(25:46):
is just by talking and talking and talking about all
the reasons why you're going to say no. That can
make that other person feel very uncomfortable as well. And
there's no need to go there.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
And we can find out that there's a lot more
to a relationship like that. Suddenly it becomes not about money,
It becomes a interpersonal stuff.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
Yeah. And then lastly, and I tell clients this all
the time, Brian, blame me, Blame your financial advisor. For
those that work with a financial advisor, they can serve
as a helpful buffer in these conversations as well. You
heard it here, folks, it's Bob's fault. Well, but referring
financial request to your advisor, you know, puts that buffer
(26:22):
if it needs to be there between you and your money.
And yeah, you can blame somebody else, someone your fiduciary
advisor that's looking out for you, and let the financial
advisor come up with that quick twenty second response on
why we can't go there where we all know we're
being asked to make a decision that might not be
in the best interest of all parties. Here's the all
(26:42):
Worth advice. Protecting your well starts with setting boundaries that
align with your values, because saying no is sometimes the
smartest financial decision you can make. Coming up next, see
if you can separate fact from fiction before it costs
you big time. You're listening to some Money presented by
all Worth Financial on fifty five KRC, the talk station.
(27:09):
You're listening to simply money presented by all Worth Financial.
I'm Bob Sponsler along with Brian James. You have a
financial question for us, There's a red button you can
click while you're listening to the show right there on
the iHeart app. Simply record your question and it will
come straight to us. All right, Brian, it's time to
play financial planning fact or fiction. I'll let you have
(27:30):
the easy one. First fact fact or fiction. You don't
need bonds in your portfolio once you retire. Brian, I
don't know about easy. I'm gonna call that one faction, right.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
It's a little above so bonds in your portfolio Normally,
historically we've recognized that bonds can be kind of the
rudder for the portfolio to smooth out the tougher times.
Over the past couple decades, the behavior of bonds has
kind of shifted. Everything gets speculated on no matter what
it is, bond moves. Bonds move with interest rates, and
we have absolutely had very different interest rate environment it's
over the prior couple of decades than we had for
(28:02):
the century prior to that. So the way I here's
I don't know, you tell me. Here's how I talked
to my clients about it. I don't really want to
necessarily make a portfolio conservative simply because someone is now
fits under the definition of retire. That's not the trigger
for me. The trigger for me is when do we
need these specific dollars. Some people are in a situation
where they don't. They've got income coming in from I
don't know, rental properties, or maybe they still own a
(28:23):
chunk of the business they used to run, whatever, and
maybe they don't need these investments. So that means or
they have a pension. Yeah, you know, pension, so scary.
Maybe that pays the bills. That's fine to me. That
pushes out the need for these particular invested dollars out
you know, ten twenty. Sometimes it really isn't even an
horizon where it's needed. So in that case, sure, let's
sty aggressive and continue to grow. Why wouldn't we Otherwise
we're taking it out of our kids' mouths Ultimately, So
(28:44):
that situation itself means I don't necessarily need bonds because
it's just something different. And if I do want a rudder,
there are other options out there. I can do both gfs,
I can do some I can arrange my investments in
another way and create that rudder.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
No, I think you hit the nail on the head.
There comes down to a the individual clients financial plan
and retirement income plan. And then second they're emotional tolerance
for a risk. It's not a one size fits all situation. Yeah,
all right, here coming at you. Now, it's your turn
for what I think is an easy one. But let's
see what Bob says.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
Buying municipal bonds is a better move when you're in
a high tax bracket factor fiction.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
Mobel, I would say, fact here, it certainly can be,
but you got to run the numbers. And I had
a client where we actually did that here recently, and
they're sitting on a boatload of cash and they feel
great about the gross marginal interest rate they're getting on
that cash, and they've got a bunch of municipal bonds
(29:39):
elsewhere in their portfolio. And I just had the conversation like, hey,
do you understand what you're actually netting here, net of
taxes and inflation by sitting on all this cash. And
this was a very smart person, very numbers oriented, And
their answer to me was, yes, I understand. I just
like holding all that cash. It makes me feel better
(30:02):
just knowing I can get to it. So it's just
you got to look at the gross you know, the
gross yield versus the net yield, look at your tax
situation and make sure you're going in or with your
eyes wide open on what you actually own, and if
you feel okay with it, fine, but at least know
what you've got.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
So I want to weigh in on this a little
bit because this is another thing I've been given some
thought to, and this is this could affect me personally
and SOMETI I'm starting to talking to my clients about
if I want better. You know, the whole point of
municipal is tax free, right, that's what we want. But
you can do that a couple of ways. One thing
I'm thinking about doing when I get to that point,
I've got another ten years or so. I'm thinking of
overstuffing my wroth IRA with megaback door four and K contributions,
(30:39):
backdoor contributions or whatever, and just knowing that that money
I'm carving out is my emergency fund and I'll stick
it in a you know, in a money market fund
that a bank might have. I could be getting four
or five percent on my wroth IRA if in my
brain I know that's my emergency fund, and I could
quickly move money to my checking account. Now I got
the best of both worlds. I get high rates of
return but no taxes.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
The key there, and what you said is your getting
out in front of it, you know, ten years in
advance and doing some you know, advanced planning. Not everybody
does that. And for folks that sell a business and
get a big whopping paycheck, they don't have that option
available to them. But no great discussion, all right, Brian Factor. Fiction,
having multiple financial advisors is a smart way to diversify
(31:19):
your advice.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Yeah, this one again. I'm gonna go with fiction on
this one because I just feel like, you know, whenever
somebody has multiple advisors, they're never happy because they're hearing
from they have to baby sit two different people. They're
hearing slightly differing points of view, even if both advisors
are really stronger. Sometimes there's three or four, but it
just seems to cloud all the decision making and they
can't commit, and it just really drags everything out that
(31:43):
they want to do. So find one that you trust
and move on. So think of this way. You might
get a second opinion from a doctor, but you don't
have both doctors perform the actual You pick one to
do the actual procedure. You're not gonna get procedure done twice.
With financial planning, you can have everything done twice if
you really want to. But it's really going to throw
an anchor in your overall comfort. It makes you your
own financial advisor because you're responsible to decide who's right.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
I don't think that could be said any better. That
is spot on, all right. Factor fiction, Brian. A five
to twenty nine plan can be converted into a raw ira.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
Fact fact fact fact fact. This is my favorite new
cool rule here. So so with the new rule came out,
five pointy nine plans, as we know are are tax
free if they're pulled out used for college tuition, books,
room board. That's the way it's been for decades. But
the concern in the past has been that I don't
want to put money in my five twenty nine because
I don't know if this newborn baby, or perhaps this
child who doesn't even exist yet, that's another thing you
(32:33):
can do. I don't know if this person's gonna be
gonna go to college, maybe they're gonna go a full ride.
I won't need these dollars, So then are not losing out?
The answer is now not at all, because there are
new rules in place as of twenty twenty four that
will allow you to As long as the account, the
five to one nine has been in existence for fifteen years,
you can contribute over time up to thirty five thousand
dollars from the five twenty nine two year wroth just
(32:54):
using that thirty five thousand dollars over three four years
as the annual contribution to the roth IRA. So if
you think about this, I love this thought, Bob. So
if I fund this, Let's say I find out my
adult child is pregnant, and now I know within the
next year something I'm going to have a baby. I
can fund that account now, and that money could grow
for sixty five years until my grandchild actually retires. That
(33:16):
is an absolutely enormous amount of money. If you want
to think lump sums, you can put twelve in now,
It'll be worth thirty five by the time they're eighteen,
and now you have funded a wroth irate contributions for
until they're inner mid twenties and hopefully really really stable.
I love that rule.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
No, it's a great rule and I think this just
the overall arching theme here is never give up those
wrath dollars until you absolutely have to, because that compounded
long term growth is a powerful, powerful thing. All right,
factor fiction and I'll take this one. An inheritance plan
is more important than in a state plan, Brian, I
(33:49):
don't think I even understand the question here, but I
think what they're some Let you take that.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
I don't get that either, so go to Well, the.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
Only way I can interpret this is an estate plan.
I think when people think of in a state plan,
I think they're talking about illegal documents, you know, and
a lot of times people don't read them. There's a
lot of boilerplate legal ees in them. The difference in
an inheritance plan is you're actually communicating and making very
clear to your heirs and your beneficiaries what you want
(34:17):
this money to do for them and win. And I
think that comes down to actual communication rather than just
drafting and leaving to someone this complicated document that just
appears out of the desk drawer after you pass away.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
Yeah. I think this might be referring to an unfunded trust,
which happens when you run across a lawyer who may
be perfectly well meaning, and they want to have you
write up trust document. That could be perfectly fine, but
if you never put anything in the trust, meaning you've
literally gone to your investment firms, you've named the trust
as beneficiary or even as the owner, that trust doesn't
do squat bob until something till it owns something.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
Coming up next, you'll get my two cents on some
additional estate planning considerations. You're listening to Simply Money, presented
by all Worth Financial on fifty five K or see
the talk station. You're listening to Simple Money because all
With Financial sponsor ar along with Brian James and Brian
(35:11):
I want to take a couple of seconds here and
just talk about an actual story client story. I ran
across here recently, and I think it illustrates something that
a lot of people should be doing and rarely do,
and that's actually review your estate planning documents every so often.
And here's why, Brian. I had a client and this
is an elderly woman that actually lived down in Alabama
(35:35):
and she left her nephew as her power of attorney. Okay,
everything good so far. However, the power of attorney document
did not allow this nephew to make any changes to
beneficiaries in any of her accounts. Well, what he did
was he set up the account for him to run,
you know, the account, and he named transfer on death beneficiaries.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
And that's fun.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
Well, this lady ended up passing away and we're trying
to get the estate settled and get all the money
moving around where it needs to go. And the custodial
firm you know, rejected moving this to that nephew's account,
you know, per the beneficiaries that were set up because
the power of attorney document did not allow this individual
(36:23):
to name beneficiaries. And this is something that should have
and could have been caught years and years ago and
made you know, provisions for that. Instead, we had to
help the client get an attorney down in Alabama take
the thing through probate court, and it took about two
months to get all this sorted out. And it was
just an unnecessary delay in probating and settling this woman's
(36:48):
estate that could have been avoided if those documents had
not been reviewed periodically and make the necessary adjustments. I
just call that out as a reminder. Review what you've got,
just set it and forget it and pull these things
out down the road because you could be in for surprise.
Speaker 2 (37:04):
So I got a little war story from the trenches too,
from last week. So that's a client of mine that
pass away, unfortunately, and at some point we had asked
multiple times to get a hold of the trust document
that they could never locate it. The trust in this
case was only the beneficiary didn't own anything. It was
named as the beneficiary, so we didn't really need it,
but obviously we like to have it on file for
this exact reason. No one knows where this trust document is,
(37:26):
so all we know is that the name of it
and the date of it, but we can't figure out
who we need to legally be talking to to retitle
these assets. So the moral of that story is make
sure that your financial advisors, your banks make sure that
they have something on file. They should have asked you
for the trust document itself, or what's called a trustee certification,
which basically pulls out the important details and you sign
a form saying yes, it was dated this date. Here
are the trustees, here's the success or trustee, and here's
(37:48):
how to get a hold of us. So make sure
you've done that, otherwise you don't have much of a
planet place.
Speaker 1 (37:52):
Well. I don't know about you, Brian, but sometimes when
I ask clients or prospective clients to review this stuff,
they look at me like, are you really gonna make
me dig this stuff out? And I'm like, yes, I am.
I mean, that's our job, and some people don't initially
want to think of that as our job, but boy,
if you can get out in front of this stuff,
(38:12):
you know, people thank us after the fact, because this
stuff really does need to be reviewed every two, three,
four years just to make sure this estate plan is
actually set up to do what you actually intended for
it to do when you had the documents drafted. It's
very very important in something that we stress with our
clients all the time. Thanks for listening. You've been listening
(38:34):
to Simply Money, presented by all Worth Financial on fifty
five KRC the talk station
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