All Episodes

April 1, 2025 13 mins
Retirement can be unpredictable, especially when faced with unexpected layoffs and economic shifts. Jon Hicks explores the emotional and financial impact of forced early retirement and offers practical strategies for navigating these challenges. From calculating buyout packages to adjusting retirement plans, Jon covers essential steps that could lead to a secure and stable future during your golden years. Schedule your complimentary appointment today: RetirementSolutionShow.com Follow us on social media: YouTube | Facebook | LinkedInSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the Retirement Solution Podcast with financial advisor John Hicks,
founder of jay Haagen Capital.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
The day you retire should be a day you choose. However,
for a lot of people lately, that has not been
the case.

Speaker 3 (00:15):
John, Oh, Yeah, into retirement.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
Yeah, aash jobs.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Being forced into retirement is a reality that a lot
of people are facing. And whether or not you work
for the federal government, all of the headlines may have
you wondering what if this happened to you. I'm had
the ranch. This is John Hicks, founder of ja Hagen Capital,
here to share his insight something that most people hopefully
are going to do is retire once. At jay Hagen Capital,

(00:45):
they are helping folks retire every single day. They have
done it literally thousands of times. So again, here to
share his insight on how it all goes down, whether
or not, again you chose to do it. Retirement Solutions
Show dot Com is where to start the conversation, John.
In the first two months of this year, more than
two hundred and twenty thousand workers private and public sectors

(01:06):
were laid off.

Speaker 3 (01:08):
Yeah, and I would say that those numbers are not
done yet, right, No, So we'll see, you know, we'll
see where we go at this. I get it right.
So regardless of what anyone thinks about, you know, what
Doze is doing and the president of all this kind of stuff,
you know, we cannot sustain. We will literally bankrupt ourselves
if we run a two trillion dollar deficit annually after

(01:29):
we have thirty seven trillion dollars of debt. It just
can't be done. So there's going to be pain, whether
people are experiencing now earlater, if we just let it
go until literally the economy just kind of collapses where
our dollar is worth nothing because we can't afford to
pay the debt service.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
Right.

Speaker 3 (01:46):
So that's a big deal. So a lot of people
may be out there finding themselves looking at being downsized
whatever they call it now right right sized. Maybe you
did work for a government agency and you're either offered
a buyout package or or they just let you go,
or you're you're dealing with another company, and frankly, maybe
they've even said, hey, you know, if we have a
recessionary period, let's not be let's not be crazy here.

(02:07):
I mean we potentially all could be replaced and or
or eliminated, and that that affects a lot of people
on this show. What we're primarily talking about is people
within you know, five years to retirement or they're already retired.
It's a big deal because if you lose that position,
you lose that job one or two years before you
thought that you'd have the right numbers to retire. Guys,

(02:29):
that changes a lot of things. I can't tell you
how many people right before two thousand and eight to
how many people you know, thought that they were going
to retire and stay retired. Two thousand and seven was
a pretty decent year. They were feeling really good. They
go in two thousand and eight, market collapses down forty
something percent, and then all of a sudden, we have
hiring freezes and everyone's lost the real estate and half

(02:51):
of Las Vegas is uninhabited. All these condos in Florida
are flooding the markets.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
Because Vegas housing o. That's such a memory trigger that
he just said.

Speaker 3 (03:03):
Because I remember it. I had a friend from college
who was asking me, Hey, John, you know I can
flip this condo. If I put three hundred and fifty
thousand dollars in this condo in Vegas, man, I could
probably get six hundred thousand dollars out of him. I'm like,
really is that true? But it did make me think,
oh my gosh, you could make all this money. What happened, Well,
it went bust yep, and then he lost He lost
most of his money. Now here's the problem, and this

(03:24):
is what happened to a lot of people. He didn't
have three hundred and fifty thousand dollars cash. He actually
had a note, he actually had a loan. He lost
ninety thousand dollars cash, but he was obligated to pay
back that note for the difference. Ooh guys, that's painful.
It's painful. So this is why we make good financial decisions.
We talked about good financial decisions on this show, not
fear of missing out or I can make all this money.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
Eh.

Speaker 3 (03:45):
Once we get to that five years or within or
or already retired, we need to be making conscious choices
to not triple our money tomorrow. Just hold on to
what we get right. Yeah, So when we're looking at
what happens, this is the big thing. So I want
to talk about what happens if you're giving a BUYO packaged,
do the math, Do the math, Do the math. As
much as we may want to be emotional about that
and say this is wrong. Guys, break out your abacus

(04:09):
or get a hold of a financial advisor or get
a hold of your CPA and do the math. What
are they actually giving you to not go to work anymore?
And it's not just the money. What are they doing
for health care? That is a bit able it's going
to retire, but for age sixty five, okay, there is
a big cost associated with health care and it's not
going down. We expect that number to keep climbing year

(04:31):
over year over years, just because we're lasting a little
bit longer. And frankly, we have a healthcare system that's
kind of broken. I'm not gonna lie to you. We
put a pill for everything, and there's a lot of
cost involved in that. You know because of that, you know,
those are other things that administration is going to start tackling.
We'll see what that does. Hopefully won't screw up all
of the healthcare systems too, But we have to look
at that. You have to do the math on that

(04:53):
and find out what is the least attractive retirement that
you could deal with, What do you you really want
to accomplish, and then what would the perfect retirement look
like right. It's not a one size fits every person.
But you may find yourself being forced to retire a
little bit earlier. That doesn't mean you can live off
the exact same plans that you had if you retired

(05:15):
two years later. There may have to be some cuts
made and you have to tighten the belt. You just
want to make sure you're doing the right things, but
still can enjoy that situation and tel maybe you find
another job or maybe find another situation, but you have
to do the math on that. Being able to retire
and feeling comfortable in retirement or two completely different things. Ok,
there's a lot of people that can really downsize and

(05:36):
go live in a refrigerator box down by the river. YEA,
that's not the objective. That is not the objective. The
objective in a perfect world would be to live nearly
an identical lifestyle to what you're living while you're working,
just hopefully without the debt, without all the crazy expenses,
hopefully without all the travel costs and things like that
associated with working, and being able to sustain that through

(05:57):
your life, so that a surviving spouse would have stoal
money and income left over and Hopefully in a perfect
world there may be something left over for the kids,
but that's secondary, right, So we just want to make
sure that that's what retirement looks like. No one wants
to be forced to downsize into a place in a
position where it's no longer fun. That sounds terrible to me.
That sounds like one of Dante's inferno rings of hell.

Speaker 2 (06:20):
To be perfectly honest, helping to avoid the ring of
fire is not one that anybody wants to be jumping
into as they're heading to their retirement years. So obviously
you here to help us with these circumstances because when
you see all these lay off the headlines, even if
you're fine for the most part, to your point, there
has been a lot of market volatility, so there are
people speculating on where we are headed with the market

(06:42):
and the economy. Some people saying early recession, talk those
kinds of things. So if you are in your late
fifties early sixties, you are probably in the prime of
your career. Translation, you're a top dog. You're making top dollar,
so one you are betting on this top dollar salary
really beef up in these last few years, really pad

(07:03):
that nest egg for one kor whatever. You're saving two
for retirement. But the flip side of that is you
got a big target on your back because you are
a big top dog and they're looking at that salary
and they're like, we could cut that and get a
twenty five year old to do it for half the price.
So what we need to be thinking about if we
are worried about that on any level, how do we
be proactive? What do we do starting right now to

(07:26):
prevent surprises.

Speaker 3 (07:28):
Yeah, so there's a few things, a couple of them.
You know, as you think about it, they're proper to
think about, right, So try to recession proof yourself or
downsize proof yourself. You know, people that do exceptionally good work,
those are usually the last people that any boss wants
to get rid of. It's the truth. Yeah, that's just
how it goes. You never want to get rid of
your performers. So if you are in a position where

(07:50):
you were worried, then hey, here's what I would say.
They always used to say that the new broom sweeps
the cleanest. Well, so to those that are a little
fearful of things not working out, correct and just be
very realistic, make sure that you have a realistic game
plan for part B right, which is it is the
fact that we do lose a job things like that
or force downsizing, or they do an early buyout. Make

(08:12):
sure your resume is cleaned up. Make sure that you
understand what your skill sets are at maybe a good
time and your downtime or spare time to be picking
gum about some skills that you know that you weren't
getting at your previous job. I'm not saying going out
learning computer coding, but there are all kinds of jobs
now associated with other gig type economies where you can
go on eats. I have clients to do this, so
I know you can go out on eats and make

(08:33):
tens of thousands of dollars. I get one client that
makes a couple hundred grand a year making stuff on
their laser engraving woodworking machine. Cost them two grand. They
make a couple hundred thousand dollars a year by laser
engraving things on wood go figure, and they make it
Bourbon specific, so it's very unique and they love it
and they make more money now than they did when
they were working. So don't look at this as a

(08:55):
situation where you lose your position, or it's not going
to pay the same, or you get downsized. Don't look
at that as the end of it, all right. A
lot of people they get flummixed, They get their head
in the wrong spot, and they say, oh woe is me?
Doar no, no, no, no no. Remember Charles Darwin, the whole
idea of those the most willing to it is not
those the strongest will not survive, right, the strongest won't survive.

(09:15):
What he said was those most willing to adapt will
not only survive, but they'll thrive. Use this as an
opportunity to reinvent what you want it to look like. Now,
if you're three to five years before retirement, a real
question is what were you basing your ideas on on
when you could retire? Was it when social Security starts?
Was it when you get to x amount of money

(09:38):
because you can pull four percent a year from Was
it when hey, you can sell that beach, sell your
current house and go live in your beach condo. What
did you use to evaluate that because you went to
establish a real budget. What if you were forced to
retire a little bit earlier, you just found yourself going,
oh my gosh, I just got laid off. I got
my big four oh one K. I'll just live off
of that for a while. Wow, if you haven't done

(10:00):
the math on that, be very careful on digging into
that four to one K a little too soon, or
converting that to a raw or converting that to an
IRA and using it too soon, because every dollar you
spend is not a dollar that you can use to
create an income stream for you in that account. And
so you really have to do the math. If you
found yourself that you have lost a position, call our team.

(10:23):
They have experts and just giving you the alternatives. It
has nothing to do with working with us. It's just
doing the simple math. What happens if you could you
retire now realistically, how many years until your Social Security
kicks on? What are the tax rates going to be
on that, what kind of healthcare costs you're going to
be looking at. Instead of pulling four percent out of
a certain type of investment strategy, could you go to
a more secure investment strategy and maybe get a five

(10:45):
or a six or a seven, And yes, I'll say it,
potentially an eight percent withdraw rate on your money, so
that you could maybe live off of twice as much
as your originally thought. Now, does that mean you're going
to be high on the hog? No? Does that mean
you may see depletion in your account? Maybe? But could
you retire in that event and at least buy some
time to look at something else?

Speaker 2 (11:07):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (11:08):
Right, So if you look at healthcare costs, you look
at how you're currently positioned, you look at what those
buyouts would look like, what is your tax structure? And lastly,
how many more years before you would have considered retirement anyway? Right?
Some people, you have tons of money, You're perfectly fine.
You may not be done working yet, but you are
required to have an income to be retired. It's good
to know those answers and good to know the alternatives

(11:30):
no matter what's thrown at us in this upcoming economy.

Speaker 2 (11:33):
Being proactive, not succumbing to some sort of victim mentality
of this thing happened or could happen to me, Instead
taking the power back. It's your money, it's your life.
Of course, you should do just that. John and his
team are here to help you walk right through this process,
right side by side with you. So find us at

(11:53):
Retirement solutionshow dot com. If you are a federal employee,
if you have been offered by out options, if you
are just wondering and worried about where the marketer economy
may go, and have you standing and making decisions in
the next two to five years, and you want to
know what your options are. You want to be proactive
and not become a victim. Let's get to work helping
you figure that out and a plan that's customized to you. Again,

(12:14):
it's Retirement Solutions Show dot com or just click on
the links we got posted in the showment.

Speaker 1 (12:19):
Thanks for listening to The Retirement Solution Podcast with John Hicks.
Begin the conversation about your savings plan with John and
the team at Jayhagen Capital by visiting Retirement Solution Radio
dot com. Be sure to listen to John's radio show,
The Retirement Solution Saturdays at eight am and Sundays at
nine am on NewsRadio eight forty Whas.

Speaker 3 (12:40):
Jay Haagen Capital Incorporated is not licensed in all fifty states.
To find out if Jayhagan Capital Incorporated is licensed in
your state, please call five zero two sixty nine oh
fifty six thirty five I JA Gegan Capital Incorporated is
not affiliated with, nor endorsed by the Social Security Administration
or any other government agency, and does not provide legal
or tax advice. By contacting US, you may be provided
with information about insurance and annuity products offer through Jay
Higgins Capital LLCNPN number one eight eight two seven zero

(13:03):
nine four
Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

Dateline NBC

Dateline NBC

Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com

Stuff You Should Know

Stuff You Should Know

If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.

Intentionally Disturbing

Intentionally Disturbing

Join me on this podcast as I navigate the murky waters of human behavior, current events, and personal anecdotes through in-depth interviews with incredible people—all served with a generous helping of sarcasm and satire. After years as a forensic and clinical psychologist, I offer a unique interview style and a low tolerance for bullshit, quickly steering conversations toward depth and darkness. I honor the seriousness while also appreciating wit. I’m your guide through the twisted labyrinth of the human psyche, armed with dark humor and biting wit.

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.