All Episodes

July 15, 2025 12 mins
If it costs two cents to make a penny, what else in your financial life doesn’t make sense? In this episode, Jon Hicks breaks down outdated investment strategies that could be quietly draining your retirement savings. From tax-inefficient mutual funds and high-fee variable annuities to underperforming insurance policies, Jon explains how to spot financial dead weight and what to do about it. It’s not about panic—it’s about clarity, control, and knowing when to pivot. Tune in for a practical, eye-opening look at what might be hiding in your portfolio.   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, which financial advisor John Hicks,
founder of Jahagen Capital.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Well times they are changing. You may have heard that
they are working to get rid of the penny. No way,
it is a phase of It is a phase of.

Speaker 3 (00:19):
What political party has already jumped up to say, No,
this is wrong, you need to change. No, we can't
get rid of the penny. It is a cultural icon
for penny people, Abraham Lincoln space, it's hey, Abraham Lincoln
foundations like No, it's a sacrilege. You can't do that.
Hold on, where are they getting rid of the penny?

(00:39):
Here's the story.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
It apparently takes two cents to make one every one
penny and John and it just doesn't That just doesn't
make sense.

Speaker 3 (00:51):
Does figure that out? Come on, figure that out.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
You must have my joke. I was waiting all day
to tell you that joke. I was real excited. Just
don't make sense. John, all right, here's what we're gonna do.
We're gonna we're gonna deep dive into things that don't
make sense financially, politically, politically. We're not doing that because
that's not what we're here for.

Speaker 3 (01:16):
Let's don't do it. Politically because we don't have that much.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
There's not enough time in this life.

Speaker 3 (01:20):
A lifetime correct.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
In this century. This is John Hicks, founder of Jahiden
Capital Financial Advisor. I'm had the branch here with John
to do the deep dive on the things that you
can control when it comes to your retirement, the future
that you want to live out, the years ahead, taking
the nest egg that you work so hard to build,
and now making that nest egg work for you in
this next place of life. Retirement Solutions Show dot com

(01:43):
is our website and where you can go to start
the conversation with John and his team. We also have
links posted in the show notes so you can just
click there. So remember when we were growing up, the
little dishes at every gas station or the cvs. Need
a penny, take a penny, have a penny, leave a penny,
you know, the little When was the last time you
needed a penny?

Speaker 3 (01:59):
I cannot actually remember. That's right, that's right.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
Kyle and I, my husband and I were walking through
a park where there was a water fountain and I
said to him. I was like, oh, let's throw a
coin in the fountain for good luck. And I pulled
a penny out and he was like, how do you
even have a penny? Where did you get this? I know?

Speaker 3 (02:14):
So if you if you go to Europe, if you
use a public restroom, you're supposed to put any coin.
They don't have a a whatever, You just put any
coin in there.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:22):
Well I just happened to All my coins in my
pocket were like four and five pound coins or whatever
whatever they have in England. They got it and and
so I was like, I was like, man, it's like
five dollars just to you know, just to use the
the loo. You know, that seems a little bit a
little excessive, but that I can't be the guy the
American don't be that walks out and doesn't put the
coin in. So I remember that next time I need

(02:43):
to take some old pennies.

Speaker 2 (02:44):
Well know that every penny you spend, there was two
pennies that.

Speaker 3 (02:48):
Worked penny that made that happen.

Speaker 2 (02:51):
And so this is basically this is the driver behind
getting rid of the penny. One nobody uses them or
needs them. They are expensive to make and it's not
unlike investment strategies and ideas or just thought process that
a lot of people have when it comes to retirement savings.
I mean, you unpack these things all the time for folks,

(03:12):
Things that don't make sense, outdated ideas, outdated strategies that
are sitting within somebody's portfolio.

Speaker 3 (03:18):
Do you not what happens all the time? I mean,
like you know, there are three or four things that
are run to all the time. And I'm not saying
that they're archaic. I'm not saying they should be eliminated,
but they don't make a ton of sense in today's world.
Number one are expensive mutual funds, especially like proprietary mutual funds.
Like if you look at and I'm just saying these,
I'm not giving any positive or negative a bottom, but

(03:40):
if you look at like a Merrill Lynch blah blah
blah fund or a named brokerage house fund mutual fund,
they're typically very expensive. They often underperform indexes or things
like Schwab or Fidelity or Vanguard. But here's the craziest thing.
Mutual funds are very tax inefficient and you cannot really

(04:00):
control your loss structure in those. Now, those have been
outdated for a while, and frankly, I think I've said
on the show for probably the last decade, if you've
saved over half a million dollars, you probably should be
looking to exchange traded funds ETFs. ETFs is what they are.
They're great ones out there, right, So they're very inexpensive
companies to use. Black Rock, Vanguard, Schwab, Fidelity, all of

(04:22):
them have good ones. But if you look at how
they operate, they allow you to number one, control your
downside because you can have hedges or stops, or you
can you can help put little things in there to
help control your downside if you choose to do that. Now,
the other thing is is that you can sell them
and have tax favoritism. You cannot do that with a
mutual fund. I cannot tell you. As a matter of fact,

(04:43):
I saw there's a couple that came in a few
months ago and they had several million dollars of mutual
funds that they had in taxable accounts, So these weren't
in iras or ross. They were just in taxable accounts.
And they're like, you know, we had done so well
on these, And to be honest, they had done fine.
They'd done around eight and a half percent by most

(05:03):
stretches of the imagination. That wasn't bad. But their tax bill,
and they didn't realize this because they didn't use a CPA.
They just went to the local place and had their
taxes done. They didn't realize that a great percentage of
their tax bill was because those mutual funds were tax
and efficient and they were paying phantom taxes, phantom income

(05:24):
taxes on mutual funds and they weren't even taking any income.
And they were like, oh, my gosh, is that why
we've had such this big tax bill. I'm like, well,
I don't know how big it's been historically, but yeah,
that's the case. So people that have mutual funds, especially
if you have them in taxable accounts, guys, you really
need to sit down with the skilled fiduciary that understands
the tax side and find out how can you unravel that.

(05:47):
You can do tax lost harvesting, you do tax gain harvesting,
and this is a big deal. This is a big
deal so that if you want to go ahead and
eliminate a position, you can go ahead and sell some
of these things if you were in a lower tax
bracket than the next generation. So these things happen all
the time, but it requires some planning. We have to
understand if we're going to unpack those things so that

(06:08):
you can save a fortune in the long run in taxes. Yeah,
we need to understand what the pros and the carns
are right before.

Speaker 2 (06:14):
We move on. It just wanted you can you quickly
explain what phantom taxes are.

Speaker 3 (06:17):
Yeah. So if you own a mutual fund, whether it
lost money that year or made money that year. Inside
of a mutual fund, they have their own tax entity,
so you may actually have to pay taxes even if
you lost money on that mutual fund. Twenty twenty two
was a perfect year. Twenty twenty two. The average mutual
fund lost somewhere between twelve and eighteen to twenty percent. Well,

(06:40):
even though it lost money, many of those people that
owned those mutual funds had to pay taxes even though
they lost money, because that mutual fund made exchanges on
the inside that you're liable for. See, that's the crazy
part that is phantom taxes. And the reason is phantom.
You didn't get anything out of that had one hundred
thousand and now you've only got eighty five thousand. You

(07:02):
lost money. How can you owe taxes? But you do
as a matter of fact, in that case, one hundred
thousand dollars. You may only have eighty five thousand by
the end of the year. You still may have gotten
a tax bill for fifty two hundred dollars in that case,
which is crazy, right, and it happens all the time.
So just understand. So mutual funds on taxable accounts unbelievably outdated.

(07:22):
Look at variable annuities too, right, And I'm not saying
look at them positively. I want you to. If you
own a variable annuity, and again, it doesn't mean you
did anything wrong. It doesn't mean the guy that you
had twenty years ago did anything wrong. But they are
unbelievably expensive to own. Now, there are some out there
that are institutional grade and they're almost they're dirt cheap,

(07:43):
but I rarely ever see those things out there. But
if you have a variable annuity, the cost in that
thing is unbelievably high. And if you did it because
you wanted to defer taxes, there are so many other
opportunities you have to defer taxes and not have those fees.
The average variable annuity in America has a cost between

(08:05):
two point seventy five and three and a half percent. Guys,
that is that is highway robbery. You know. I typically
say when you're dealing with an advisor, dealing with an investment,
it'd be nice to be one percent all in, you know,
or less in a perfect world. So when you're thinking
that it's two and a half to three times the cost,
and that's just for the variable annuity, that has nothing

(08:25):
to do with if you're paying an advisor on top
of that, Guys, that's that's crazy. So if you have
variable annuities, you just want to assess those. There are
so many other things that are out there that are
more attractive.

Speaker 2 (08:36):
You're not stuck in them. You can you can trade
out on a new I mean, like it listened, not
the advisor here, So don't take what I'm saying, you know,
as gospel. But there are options. You're not stuck in
an annuities. So if you have a variable nuity, let's
let's take a look at it.

Speaker 3 (08:49):
Any kind of annuity that stinks. The laws have changed
so much, there's so much evolution in things. There are
very few things that if they're not good for you.
There are very few things you can't get out of.
You just need an the pros and the cons right there,
could be a tax effect. There could be a little
bit of a surrender charge or a fee to get out.
There could be some form of a penalty. You may
not be able to keep all the gains. Those things
are things that we have to navigate through. But it's

(09:11):
much better in my opinion, even if you have to
pay a two or three percent hit. If you're stuck
in something that's going to cost you three percent a year, right,
if you stayed in it for the next three years,
it's going to cost you three six nine percent to
stay in, or maybe it only cost you one or
two percent to get out. And again I don't like
people paying fees to get out of anything. But those
are just those things that you want to assess if

(09:31):
you have it and you've stayed in it, because you
don't want to pay a fee. Just do the math, right,
Always do the math. So those are two big ones.
And another one that I see all the time, especially
as we get a little bit older, people that have
these outdated insurance policies. Right, so they've been paying on
these things forever and ever and ever, and frankly, they're
never going to use it. It's not going to be
a benefit to them. Do you just want to look
at those How much are you really paying? Is usually

(09:53):
as we age, it keeps getting more expensive. Well, there's
a couple of times that I've seen where people are
paying a lot of premiums and the death benefit it
is nearly the same as what they've already put into
the policy. Right, Okay, So you just want to look
at some of those things too. And again, if you
have a good quality advisor, they should be able to
look at all those things. It's not about selling you
something different, it's just about doing an assessment. Does it

(10:13):
make sense to keep paying two hundred and eighty nine
dollars a month if you expected to have another twenty
years of your life to only have a twenty five
thousand dollars policy? Maybe? Maybe not right? So those are
three big ones that I think are things that people
should really look at consider and again, just get a
second opinion from a skilled fiduciary. Not all fiduciary advisors
are created equally, right. All of us have completely different

(10:35):
thought processes, different philosophies, different skill sets, different education levels.
So you just want to make sure that if you
want someone that focuses on taxation and wealth transfer and
growth and income that you find someone that actually does that.

Speaker 2 (10:48):
John and his team, that's what they're doing every single
day and working to help their clients. They can help
you as well, So let's begin the conversation. You can
visit us at Retirement solutionshow dot com to start the
second opinion process on your savings and investments. As John
was pointing out, it's just so much more than just
stocks and four oh one case. There are so many

(11:10):
different things that could be hiding within your plan that
are wasting your money. But at Jahigen Capital they want
to help uncover those areas and show you waste each
by people to do better. So let's start the conversation.
You can click on the links we've also got posted
in the show notes or visits anytime Retirement solutionshow dot com.

Speaker 1 (11:26):
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 4 (11:48):
Jahagen Capital Incorporated is not licensed in all fifty states.
To find out if Jay Hagan Capital Incorporated is licensed
in your state, please call five zero two six nine.

Speaker 3 (11:55):
Fifty six thirty five.

Speaker 4 (11:56):
If Jahegan 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 contact accounts,
you may be provided with information about insurance and annuity
products offered through J. Higgins Capital LLCNPN number one eight
eight two seven zero nine four
Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

Crime Junkie

Crime Junkie

Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.

24/7 News: The Latest

24/7 News: The Latest

The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.

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.

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

Connect

© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.