Money on Tap Podcast Content

MOT 172  benefits of owning your own Business

Welcome to Money On Tap.

Money On Tap! Your personal finance headquarters where we bring out the professionals experience and some fun in what we call three dimensional investing, utilizing insurance brokerage and fee based planning. That's what we do on this show. We look at all sides of the issues, we bring a fully independent planning perspective to the table.

Welcome back. You are listening to money on tap. My name is Seth Crossman, and we got a big room of people here today. For starters, Mr. Benjamin Brayshaw. How are you doing today? Good, Seth. How are you doing? I am well, I am well, we got a good show today, Seth, and we actually have some guests. We have several partners here at Brayshaw Financial Group. And we've had both of these gentlemen on with us before they're a ton of fun. And for starters, it's Mr. Tony Scola, how are you today? I'm doing fine, Seth. All right. And Dan Michelon, joining us once again, it's good to have you back in the room with us, buddy. How you doing? Doing good, ready to share ready to learn. I like that. I've been working on that. Do you have that on your business card?

So what are we going to be talking about Ben, you said it's going to be good, we are going to be covering that self employed person. All the benefits about being self employed, having your own business, maybe it's a side business, but all the pieces that revolve around it. So today, you know, there's a lot of people out there that say, you know, I always wanted to own my own business, and what benefits would I have from that? And I think today, we're gonna cover a bunch of those. And I also think for the person who is self employed, we're going to talk about the benefits that they're actually either enjoying, or maybe ones that they're maybe overlooking. Yeah, before we get there, though, we have a couple of things that we want to make sure we cover. First of all, you can reach us at 855-226-8551, or info@yourmoneyontap.com.And for those of you that have been listening in reaching out and connecting, we want to thank you, it's a lot of fun to put this together. But it's even more fun to be able to sit down with you and find out where you're at in your in your financial journey, and how we can connect and how we can you know, bring some organization or some ideas and really do some planning work around this idea of retirement. Whether you're in that accumulation phase, or that distribution phase, wherever you're at, it's a lot of fun. And we really appreciate you reaching out and connecting with us and and for the rest of you out there that are just liking us in podcast land and listening and subscribing out there, we thank you too, because those are all things that you just give back to us here at Money on Tap. And you know what? It's appreciation. It's appreciation time here.

We're gonna segue right there into money in the news.

All right, folks, did you know that the Dow Jones Industrial Average has reached a milestone? And it's unbelievable - 125 years of Dow Jones, and we've done, Gosh, I it seems like we do a Dow Jones show at least once a year, at least we did it at the 30,000 mark the 20,000 mark, and you know, somewhere between there I think as well, like one underneath there, too. We did one at 18,000.

But it's it's tremendous. And it's incredible. It's so it's the longest storied index that we have available. And it's always a fascinating topic. And one that, frankly, always comes up whenever we're having conversations with clients too. Yeah, you know, I think everyone, you know, bases the market and if they had a good day or a bad day in the market, on the Dow, you see the Dow go up and you're like, oh, the markets doing good today. And then sometimes you look down your portfolio like oh, that's not exactly what the Dow is doing. You know, it's funny, because when you're, you know, a lot of people don't realize, you know, the Dow is, you know, the 30 large I wouldn't say largest because I don't think they actually officially do that anymore, but 30 large US companies and that's not a huge pool of companies. That's exactly what ; a lot of times people you know, absolutely they look at the Dow is a representation of the entire market and they seem to be shocked when I challenge them to tell me how many companies make up the Dow, but as you mentioned, it's only 30 and they're ordered. If you ever ask anybody to name some of the Dow companies, it's really amazing. They don't have any idea. They can't even name two or three. And that's hard, you know. So that takes away a lot from people's understanding what their portfolio is doing based on what the markets doing. I think for a lot of us, it's our first introduction to the market and some form of fashion too, like and just begin back sitting here right now. But in fourth grade, my teacher, Mr. Bibb, shout out to Mr. Bibb. But he would post on this chalkboard every day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average. And for all of us, you know, in fourth grade didn't mean a whole heck of a lot. But, you know, it sticks with you. And it becomes something that serves as an introduction to the market for a lot of us. And if you think about the number, the actual score the value of it, you know, in understanding today's the 125th anniversary, you saw some pretty interesting facts around that. It first crossed 100 at 1906. First crossed 2000 in 1972. Then cross 10,000 in 1999. And in the short time relatively since then we're at over 34,000 today. Yeah. I think I missed some of that in my life span. But it's crazy, though. That is a that's a big run. Well, apparently whatever Mr. Bibb was doing in fourth grade, he did it well, because Dan, you are one of the finest financial planners I have the privilege of sharing the mic. And you can pay me later for that. So we'll move on to --

You know, I don't think it would be a complete show here at Money On Tap, unless we were to just, you know, do a little bit of name dropping here and today, it happens to be Disney.

We are; I mean, we're like all Disney families here. Tony, are you a Disney family? Yes and no, my kids have had quite a bit of exposure to Disney throughout their life through their moms. So do you own Disney plus? We have Disney plus in the household. Yes. Okay, so we all do. You sounded like you would like we like we caught you at McDonald's eaten fries right there. What's wrong with Disney Plus?

Well, you know, my son in law happened to be at the house and had wanted to watch Mandalorian and we did not have Disney plus, now we do. Now we do. Interesting. You know, every time I think of Disney, I -- you know, I just see dollar signs, not dollar signs coming in. It's like a big fat negative right in front of every time I see Disney. I see the name Disney - I just think expensive. Do you guys have that feeling? I certainly have you know, took  a trip there with well now 15 year old but the time was like nine.

Yeah, that was brutal. That was a heck of a trip.

I think we should come up with a show like how to do Disney on a budget. Don't. And then at the same time, I'm like that would be an epic fail because that's not possible.

Define budget, alright, let's get into a full day at Disney. I'm sure you can save a little bit. So the reason we're all talking about this everyone who's listening saying why he's talking about Disney. Disney has been in this news a number of times, but today they're in the news for introducing the $100 sandwich. I mean, I don't know about you, but dropping 100 bucks at Disney sounds cheap. That's expensive.

That is really only $100, probably rounded down just make us feel better. And the genius of Disney is that they're marketing it - they're promoting it as one of the world's most expensive sandwiches. So they're not even apologetic about it. No, and people are gonna wear that like a badge of honor because they you know they went to Disney and they got the pym-ini. Which is the family sized pym-ini. So it's like a Panini, but it's like a pie. And you  chop it up like pizza. And hopefully, you're able to feed a family of five, which I guess is relatively on par. Right? Because you're doing 20 bucks a head at that moment. And that almost seems like a deal. Yeah. In all fairness actually, the article stated that it's supposed to serve up to eight, in which case it is a bargain. Yeah, well, it does. There's two articles that say one's a five one's at eight, now you know I'm looking at this thing saying to myself, the single serving is only 14,99. If I do the math, I'm kind of ahead of the game. But I think what's really interesting about this is that I was trying to figure out before I even got to down in the article thinking about what could possibly be in the sandwich. I was like, what could possibly be in the sandwich? I mean, this has got to be I mean, and then I go look at the first the first. The first ingredient is salami.

I was thinking we're gonna like have you know, I don't know, black truffles and I mean something like you know, like, very you know, flowery and foreign and you know, bring it in and gourmet. Yeah, I was gonna go right. It's like, salami, Rosemary ham, maybe that's what they're doing, you know, and you know, provolone, some sun dried tomatoes, and whatever, it can feed a bunch of people, supposedly. But at the end of the day, I guess if you're buying the $100 sandwich, you don't want to sit there and look at your kids and say you better eat that.

Especially if it serves 8. Right, exactly that's a good point. Yeah. How does Disney go wrong? It's like you buy you buy your children food, and they just don't eat it.

Yeah, I don't know how the salami is gonna hold up in the Florida heat. That's that's a rough one. Good point. Gosh. All right. Well, next up, we have an article from the Wall Street Journal here. This article is by Melanie Evans. And, you know, we're doing this article, because I think honestly, I don't think any of us are really excited about it. I mean, not to be a downer here. But I think it awareness articles really interesting here. But Google struck a deal with the hospital, HCA healthcare Incorporated, a stock that I have owned, and it's to develop an algorithm using patient records, to provide better health care. And, you know, basically just trying to consolidate and build all around that entire technological piece. Now, I know that there's companies out there that do some of this stuff, but it' Google, and I don't know about you, but it seems like Google knows everything. And I really don't want them to have my health records. I don't know how you guys feel. Yeah, I agree. It seems a little scary, but you know, they, purport to offer significantly higher efficiencies and really streamline the healthcare system. But, you know, as usual, a lot of data out there, and we gotta be mindful of exactly who's got it. Or who's mining it. True. What do you think, Seth, you all for this? I love that big tech is out there under a this idea that there really are helping people. And, there's a need there for you know, doctors to be more efficient, there's a shortage in the healthcare world. And, we've got the, you know, the population story of, you know, our aging population that's coming through, technology is  going to have to be a solution. But then when you put Google on it, there's just a part of me that definitely wants to take a step back and say, let's just put a pin in that buddy, let's just hold off.

Google also came up with a deal with the Mayo Clinic on storing medical records and doing some algorithms around that information as well, which is being pushed out into this article. But I had zero awareness of any of that stuff. And, you know, there's other tech giants out there too doing this, which is, you know, Microsoft is involved in trying to identify various IT development strategies. And I mean, all the big players, I don't know about you guys, but I, every time I turn around, I mean, I know these companies are large. But should they have their hand in every industry, every sector access to all this information? I mean, it's really it kind of kills me that every company has a piece of almost every pie, which makes them really not vulnerable to like, they're like, "Hey, listen, we'll just shut you all down," you know, and we can shut the whole economy down a, significant amount of concern around the control that they can acquire by holding our data. Right now, I've seen it as a double edged sword where, you know, they can justify it by saying that it they're offering better products and services based on the factors that they've been able to mine from spending habits, travel habits from traveling, you know, following your GPS and things like that to make things more efficient or more cost effective for you, but now you're getting into healthcare.  And even if it isn't a HIPAA privacy violation, whether it's not specific to you, you know, where where's this data going to be able to be used that to other ends of profit that you know, you haven't authorized? Yeah, where do we, as a consumer get to say under our HIPAA rights, that we don't want Google to have this information? I mean, that's really it's like where are you storing it? Well, and what are they using it for? I mean, even if it's innocent enough in there if they're going just for say profit, I liken it to you know, you buy a car and they they put the dealership sticker on your car or your license plate frame and, you know, it seems innocent enough, but you're providing free advertising from a product that you purchased and I see this as a very similar thing. You're you're going for service, you have a healthcare issue. And and they're basically using as an opportunity to mine data to find more ways to profit from from something that they haven't paid for. It's just another series of disclosures. We're gonna have to read through and sign off on as we enter a medical facility? And do we read them? No, nobody does. Yeah. So this is one of those areas that I think really needs some exploration by a lot of leadership, Seth, I mean, I pass this over to you a little bit. But I mean, at the end of the day, our whole economy, our whole world, every sector, every piece of our lives is just being, you know, brought together and at what point in time, are they going to connect all these points together with things we don't want anyone to know? And we have a right to privacy. You know, it might not be that we have anything to hide, but I mean, everyone has a right to say: "Hey, I don't want this information out there." And when is it going to be leaked? And when is someone going to hack them? And how is this going to happen? The article goes on, and in some level of fairness, which I'm not giving it, but they do go on to say that, you know, during the pandemic, that HCA had used its own technologies to monitor things and kind of the bringing together of these algorithms and everything else somehow impart with Google has helped prevent the spread of COVID-19.

And that they were able to provide better treatment and prevention. So they're acknowledging there's some benefits to that in the article.

And I can appreciate that. But it can be done with somebody other than Google, they've really shown their unwillingness to really budge on this online privacy and marketing piece, when you take a look at, you know, the social media and all these other things. What are they willing to do? What lengths are they willing to go to, to really keep you in the loop keep you buying keep you attached to them? And that's their model, that's their, that really is their how they make money. And to kind of think that there's like this Chinese wall or whatever, between, you know, the profit center of Google, in this idea over here, we're here to help.

You know, maybe those ideas start that way, but they've shown time and time again, that they will come back into the fold of Google and it will not be in the interest of the individual, it will be in the interest of you know, whoever's, you know, paying the most money out there, and frankly, that's the scary thing. It's like, you know, it is it's really a unfortunately, it's like a setup for a bad sci fi movie. Folks, you are listening the Money On Tap, that's gonna do it for us in money in the news, you can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. When we come back from this short little break here. We are going to get into the benefits of owning your own business. It's going to be a lot of fun. We're going to be talking side hustles we're going to be talking, you know, retirement plan and all the things that people are doing to augment income. And, gosh, I really cannot wait to get into the meat of this show with you guys. You're listening to money on tap. We'll be right back.

Folks, it is so much fun for us to bring you Money On Tap. My name is Seth Crossman, and I am one of the hosts here at money on tap. I'm also a financial planner. That's what we do. That's what Ben and I do. And the fun part is, is we get to have this radio show we talk about important things that we think you need to listen to and be aware of to help raise the bar as far as your financial literacy. It's a big part of what we're trying to do here. The other thing that we're doing here as well, as financial planners, we are welcoming you to come and call us and to join us at brayshaw Financial Group, experience what complete Wealth Management looks like. Let's take a look at all sides of the issue. Get a three dimensional perspective and put a plan around your next step. It's so critical and so many people just leave this part out and then they find out later if I only would have known. Hey, don't let that be your story. Give us a call at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. If you have $250,000 of investable assets today, our plan is free to you. We think it's important for you to know the facts and have a playbook so you can have a successful retirement. Give us a call at 855-226-8551, thanks for listening.

Now back to Money On Tap  with Ben and Seth.

Welcome back, you're listening to Money On Tap, you can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. And it is a, it's gonna be a fun one for you folks. So hold on to your chair, as we get ready to go down the road of benefits of owning your own business. And it's a big topic, because there's so many neat things out there and stories around, you know, entrepreneurship and creating a side gig, side hustle, you know, all these kind of terms that are out there right now, you know, those kind of get tagged and pinned into the, under the fold of millennials a lot of the time, but it's not a concept that's foreign when we talk about people, you know, working for, you know, a company or something like that, and they're just like, Hey, I really have this need to either have another income for my family, or I just have a passion around this idea over here and launching their own business.

And there's quite a bit of information out there if this is you. And let's say that, you know, the kids have gone to college and you're trying to create a second income in the home, or maybe a third income in the home. That's a common theme. But there's just a lot of great information out there as we kind of started looking deeper into the topic and resources for people that are trying to find whatever that side gig might be or where that that business idea for you might be? Well, we're gonna try to keep this above and aboveboard today inside gigs.

Because, you know, the thing is, is the thing about a side gig is that, you know, there's always people doing stuff on the side, like, you know, sell a little bit here at Craigslist. And, you know, I made a little bit of cash. And it's not really reportable in my mind, you know, I mean, that we're talking about, I think this is what we're talking about is people who are saying, I want to engage this new entrepreneur kind of experience, or I'm going to open up my own business, or I'm going to do something and I'm looking for - to do this legitimately, I'm looking for, you know, this is going to be a company, and I'm going to sell something, I'm going to service something, I'm going to provide something of that nature. Now, there's a lot of people out there. And I've got, you know, I've got friends, I got family, people who, you know, they're always buying and selling stuff on eBay, or they're, you know, run around doing something for a friend as a favor, it's like a few 100 bucks. And, you know, there's plumbers, electricians, right, we've found ourselves in a bind, and we had a, you know, change a faucet and said, hey, listen, I know you're a plumber can just come over and do it here, hey, here's a $100, you know, I mean, that kind of stuff happens. In America, there's a lot of that stuff. You know, there's a lot of Americans out there doing that piece. But I think what we want to chat about today is, you know, really the, the crux of like starting something very intentional and, and trying to run that. So you know, for the person who either is thinking I want to own a business, or you already own a business, or you're looking to really create something, and build into a passion because you have a job, but you're not planning on leaving that. This show is for you.

So, I was thinking today, you know, as we were walking into, you know, Tony, I was thinking about your wife's company, and I was wondering if you could just share a little bit about that, because that's a pretty well known company. And probably a lot of our listeners here on the East Coast won't even have heard of it. Been there know about it? Sure,yeah. So she's  a representative for Rhode Island Fields. And the way they're set up is, you know, kind of that motto of, you know, being business for yourself, but not by yourself. Everybody owns their own business and they build it up, but it's a multi level marketing platform and, you know, that has kind of its own stigmas and things like that, but it's a legitimate business and it's a really great opportunity for people to get their feet wet in entrepreneurship, business ownership, and-- but she doesn't come and I was actually leading a totally different road, but she doesn't come from not owning her own business. Like this wasn't new for her because I was actually thinking about the business prior to that because-- Oh, right. Yeah, no, she spent a lifetime I mean, as a as a young person in college, she ran a cleaning business and that grew and then for 22 years owned a children's store that was a legitimate retailer. Before you know, the days of Amazon making it more challenging to be a retailer. But then, you know, she got into I think what you're referring to as her cupcake business. Yeah.

So I guess we'll go on to that. I mean, and that is kind of, I think what you were talking about, it was taking something that you had a bit of a skill with, you know, doing it for friends and family, and it kind of snowballed into, oh, you know, can I order something and it ended up really turning into a business that she had a tough time getting out of, because the demand was so great. Yeah, no, I know, I mean, to the point where, I mean, I, I'm not a cupcake, you know, kind of sore, but to the point where you'd mentioned it to my wife, and she's like, Oh, I know, that company. Like, it was just, you know, very interesting about how that, and I would honestly say that your wife is like a serial entrepreneur. Absolutely. Yeah. And she's, she's, she's very aware of that it always has an idea of, you know, something she gets involved within, a lot of times it comes from charity work, I mean, the cupcake thing, that's how it got revitalized recently was she started providing it for essential workers, and as a reward, you know, go online and submit somebody to win cupcakes for their, you know, the hospital department on a certain floor and things like that. And then through that, it just blew up again. Yeah, so it's, and, you know, so it brings me to my kind of the first point we were chatting about for today, which is, you know, freedom, you know, we use the word freedom in the business world, I'm thinking to myself, you know, what, honestly, we're all self employed here, we all work together, where we own this company. And, you know, it's like, when you think about, it's like, yeah, there are some freedoms, but there's a lot of freedoms you lose. So I don't know about you guys, but I think it's a not necessarily a pro, but it could be con too. Yeah. And that the notion of paid time off, you know, that that evaporates quickly, when you're doing your own thing, you measure a day differently, you measure your time differently. And it just brings a different value set to you know, how you go about your daily business. And it's an eye opener, but I think for people that have taken the plunge and I've went from a kind of corporate America job to run my own business, and, you know, you go into what kind of you thought eyes wide open, but there's some some quick realities that set in. But all in all, if you have the mindset for that, and you've really made the determination to be your own boss, then I think that is, it can be a tremendously rewarding experience and really the direction to go, but there's, there's a lot of understanding that you have to appreciate that-- had to sugarcoat it a little bit, a little bit, you know, I got sold a few things.

But the truth of it is, there is freedom in there, there really, truly is. It's, it's a balance, though, between the freedom, you know, you can take in the responsibilities, you know, you got to meet, and you always have to kind of weigh that and make the best decisions for yourself and for your family. And, you know, but I can tell you though, on a personal note, I went through some health struggles with a child and, and having the ability to, can make my own schedule during that period of time, you know, was was a lifesaver for my family, you know, my wife was employed and kind of had a different situation there. So the ability to, you know, use her schedule time off, and the freedom of my schedule to patch together a day was just absolutely critical. Yeah, that's definitely was a tough time. And I, you know, I was good.

You know, I think I think for a lot of people who do own their business that are listening, you know, a lot of us tend to fall into traps of just all in or all out, you know, and we kind of found a fall on those lines. And, you know, this is a reminder for you, if you're listening and you own your own business, you should have some freedoms, you know, yourwife or husband who's saying, Hey, listen, when you can take some time off, or what are we gonna do this? If you're getting those nudges, maybe listen to them a little more.

Yeah, I think that's important; that work life balance. It's easy to lose sight of it, but it's a critical thing.

Yeah, that can be so hard to do.

When you are the person that is responsible to, you know, your family, and that tie in that connection is so deep, that, you know, to say that I'm going to step away from the work that is providing for or is accomplishing our goals and taking care of our family's needs. It just is not it doesn't connect, it doesn't make sense for our brains a lot of the time to say, take a break, come back, you know, when you've had a little bit of time, it's going to be okay. And the benefit there can be that fresh perspective. The other benefits, I mean, we could add an item to those with you know, the family and the connections and the relationships that are really meaningful to us, and that being a critical component to the why we do what we do as an entrepreneur as a business owner is

Wow, all right.

 Number two, I came, you know, as I was kind of going through this, this is one of the things I came up with in a--you know, for a lot of people who are looking for that aren't really self employed, they're working a regular job, you know, this is a wonderful thing to have, if you have, if you work on building a business, if you if you work on having something like, even if it's just a little bit of revenue, if you did lose your job, if you did have something, you'd have something you could fall back on, you know, some of the greatest businesses and, you know, huge businesses all started from people who lost their job, and were working in another role, and then that just exploded because they couldn't find another job to replace it. So they just kept pushing through that, I think having something to fall back on is something that we don't have a lot of and we need to have in this country is just the ability to be able to protect ourselves financially, and so forth. So just one thought.

It sounds like you're talking about diversification.

That's another word for it. It'll be interesting. I haven't seen any stats on it, but I wonder how many new businesses have been born out of this pandemic, you know, people that, you know, had time on their hands, not by choosing to do so, but were, you know, forced to be at home, and I'm sure a lot of terrific inspiration came out of that, I actually have heard of, I'm not sure if any of you guys have heard the term, but COVID clarity. And that's folks that I know have who have actually made career changes or transitions to self employment to pursue their passion, based on the situation that happened last year, with a lot of their job changes to work from home, sometimes losing jobs, or the fear of losing a job, and realizing, you know, life is short, and you know, I have something that I really want to accomplish in life, and maybe now's the time to do it. So they used it as an opportunity to make the leap, and from what my understanding the vast majority, people don't regret it one bit.

Tony, you bring up a really great idea. And there's the other side of the coin here for our business owners that are that have the employees that maybe there's a concern about losing the talent, you know, and that can be really challenging in terms of developing that talent within your organization. And feeling like, okay, that is something that is now I have I have some ownership in or, you know, that person, I don't own them, but I feel like they're responsible to me now, in some way, shape, or form. And there's actually some great research out there, around the benefits of promoting that outside, you know, that secondary income, you know, for one, the employees love to be able to not feel like, you know, they're owned by their job, you know, these, these other alternative entrepreneurial opportunities can spur creativity, you know, the employees come back so much more happy.

You know, maybe they see that the grass is not greener on the other side, and that they really, you know, that side gig was not really what they're cut out for, and they come back with more of a passion in doing the work that you offer, and that you've developed and in and have them therefore, and then you know, they can also bring back a lot more skills and professional connections, and, it can prevent burnouts. So just some others, you know, some other things to consider when, you know, this topic might come up and you happen to be the employer. You know, one of the things that comes up fairly regularly, you know, in the conversations we have with people in retirement and talking about retirement is do you have a side job? You know, I mean, is there something else you're doing? Are you planning, when you retire from your kind of primary workload? Do you expect there to be a secondary piece of income, whether you're going to work as a consultant, you know, at your current position, are you going to do you have a little bit of a side job, side hustle, whatever it is, that is going to bring supplemental income in because those things are, I would say, the majority of the time, I would say that, I'm not thinking like 80% or 90% of the time, but I'm thinking 50% to 60% of the time we sit down, I sit down with somebody that says, Oh, yeah, when I retired, well, I'm not gonna be fully retired, I have this and I, you know, I work for the women's whatever, or I, you know, I run this or I'm planning it, I work at a golf course, or, you know, they're all doing something. They don't want to sit at home and read a book all day. I mean, they want to be doing something, there seems to always be some secondary income. What do you what do you what do you think? Oh, absolutely. I mean, that's one of the things I talked about as well when I do retirement planning is Is there anything that even if it's not a business or a hobby that may generate some activity, I'll use, you know, personal stories and examples, my mother - my brother had got her into painting as a hobby just to occupy her time and give her something to focus on but next thing she knew she had a bunch of painted canvases laying around her house that she couldn't give away fast enough because she was just really got into painting. So she ended up renting a table at a flea market and putting her paintings out and was shocked to find out that people were interested in purchasing them. And then that kind of steamrolled into our, you know, rolled into her learning how to get on eBay, as you mentioned earlier, and has now an online store for it. And so, yeah, basically is a legitimate artist. Yeah. And it's something that never would have considered and is actually generating, you know, some combination of an activity or retirement activity that's keeping our busy and stimulated, but also bringing in some supplemental income. And no, I think that can happen quite a bit.

Yeah, there's actually an article out there, if you're in this, you know, this phase are moving towards that retirement and kind of looking, there's a article out there 25 side gigs that you can start in retirement. And as I was looking through that, I was I was pretty impressed. I mean, there's, you'd be surprised what the what the call or the need is out there for things like an Interim Executive. Not everybody has to be an Uber driver, even though that's a really popular one.

How many times you get into the Uber, right? I've never done a Lyft before, but I got into an Uber and be like, so what do you do? You know, like, it's, but that's what they're doing. They're, you know, like, You're, you're like, hey, so what do you do for a living? They always have a job. Oh, yeah. I'm actually on my lunch break. Or I'm, I've had the funniest conversations with people that are like, doing like, legitimate, you know, career like high end career jobs just being like, yeah, just killing some time figure I'd make 20 bucks.

That's funny, right? I mean, I bet you most of our listeners, have you ever not asked an Uber driver, what they do, you do have some amazing conversations. And it really is the easiest side job you could possibly have. If you ask anybody. Do you remember your worst Uber experience? Everyone does.

You know, my, my brother in law, was actually a taxi driver. Back when there were taxis, and he was just over the other day having dinner with us. And, boy, some of those stories, oh my gosh, some of the stories that he has to tell. And I think that would be that would be the same. Something similar to if you're out there and you're connecting with the public and meeting their need, wherever they're at, you're gonna have some some things that you come back and you can have some dinner table conversation around. You know, I just think about all the different side jobs and stuff. You know, I know I'm, you know, I scoured the article, it's just kind of interesting, like people who are disc jockeys or you know, like on the side web developers who don't even do really web for job like they they do it, you know, use WordPress or whatever. And, yeah, took a class or two and where they go, Yeah, but I thought it was interesting. There was one job that I was kind of like, I might be interested in doing that. Like when I'm like done because I want to not waste my time. And it was

it was a I just want to get the official title tax preparer. I'm sure it was a tax preparer or the pen. Oh, no, no, no rumor. I actually was interested me, which was a city guide writer.

Just to tell you about the city like I like it, I was like, no, no, I can do that. Maybe, I don't know. But I could see you doing that. Yeah, history is kind of one of your passions. And that would be I could see you doing that. Like, hey, you know, go over here. Do this. See this? Yeah, I can see myself doing that. I just go experience the city for free just to go write it.

You never know. You might see me there one day, Seth. Ah, Ben, I have too many words to share how I  can't even get into how I feel about that.

Where do we go next? We go to, we're gonna take a quick break here at Money On Tap. You can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. And we're gonna come back and we've got more to share around some of the benefits of being a business owner. If you have a passion for being an entrepreneur, if you're heading into retirement, if you're coming out of being full time parent and needing to take a look at another income. There can be so many things that you maybe haven't even maybe your business already you haven't even explored. Some of the things that we're going to be talking about is the benefits but we can't wait to share them with you. We'll be right back. You're listening to money on tap.

Call us today at 855-226-8551 and get your free consultation with Ben Brayshaw or Seth Crossman, or any one of our partners and find out what's going on in your plan.  Your estate plan your financial plan for what you're planning at all. If nothing, get it fixed. Get it right. Get it done today. Give us a call at 855-226-8551 and

Now back to money on tap with Ben and Seth.

Welcome back, you're listening to Money On Tap, you can reach us at 855-226-8551, or info@yourmoneyontap.com, and we are talking about benefits of owning your own business. And, you know, we had some fun kind of discussing just different scenarios where life meets us. And we have, you know, people discovering, being a business owner through COVID. And you know, that that need based, I got to find something and, you know, this thing wound up being the best thing ever, for me, because it completely blew away the income I was making before, there's, there's quite a few stories about like that. And that's very attractive, I think, for a lot of people that are looking to become their own business owner. But maybe you happen to be a business owner already. And in, you just really haven't taken a look at exploring what some of the other benefits are, in terms of, you know, this next year, and in possibly your tax filing, why? Why would being a business owner be a benefit to you? For for your taxes.

You know, Seth, this is probably the biggest reason that, you know, if you're listening and you're a business owner needs a delicate hand, because I have I mean, just even honestly, recently in this last year, because it's been a different year, right, so that businesses are running differently. They're functioning differently. They're managing their business in completely different roles. There's new expenses that haven't been endured by companies before, like, I mean, I don't know if you guys remember, but I remember I was looking for additional for an additional computer monitor from my office and like, the entire staples line out just lineups, like said sold out, sold out, sold out. And I was talking to a guy he's like, Oh, yeah, he goes, we had companies just ordering monitors and shipping them to people's homes. And then I thought about that, you know, I mean, you know, maybe I should have bought into monitor stock, I don't know. But you know, the the interesting part about this is that there has been a ton of new expenses and companies just to keep themselves going separate from the revenue that they were just trying to keep maintaining. So, you know, I'm just thinking that there's a lot of things I mean, with it, as a self employed person, there's a lot of write offs, you get to itemize. Okay, so we talked about taxes, and if, if you're starting off, you know, basically a little entrepreneurship thing, you know, and you're married is that there's an automatic deduction of like 24,200. And if you're single, there's an automatic deduction of 12,100. So you have to create enough deductions above that number, where you start itemizing, where you start writing down a list of everything you get to deduct and once you cross those thresholds, then your CPA says, Yeah, we want to do what we call a Schedule C, okay? We want to write down everything that you're doing all the tax items that you know, cost you money in your business. And that's when you start actually getting financial benefits for having your business. Now, if you have a really small business, you may not go over those natural automatic deductions, because when Trump raised that automatic deduction limit, that cut out like a ton of Americans to the point where only 7% of people are actually itemizing and doing the long forms. So, you know, that brings a lot of perspective to things. But if you're just starting out with your business, knowing that those numbers have to be reached, and so forth, you can start swaying your taxes to be itemized one year and not itemize the next year. Like, we have people to do that with charitable, you know, donations, I'm thinking about people who have done, you know, the deferred annuity gifts, you know, and where they will, you know, they'll shove three, four or five years worth of gifting all into one year. And they'll, you know, they'll say they gave $10,000 to charity every year for  the last decade, we'll say, Hey, listen, why don't you just put it in here. And we'll, we'll take the deduction of, say, five years today, 50,000 bucks, we'll donate the money there, they'll distribute it out over the next five for you. You get the deduction on the whole 50 itemize. And the next year, you'll just get the full $24,000 as if, you know, whatever, but you didn't happen to do the 10,000. Because the $10,000 you know, charitable gift never put you over. Okay, so we'll do that. But you can do the same thing with businesses. I mean, you can say, Hey, you know what, I'm going to buy all my technology stuff in every other year and force myself to make sure I go over and, you know, try not to another years. I mean, there's all sorts of ways of doing it. But with this pandemic, I mean, planning your taxes and understanding your taxes has only made it more relevant.

Oh, completely agree. I mean, prior to that, I think a lot of those self employed folks that I work with it We're looking at deductions a big thing was equipment, heavy equipment vehicles that they could take depreciation over a period of time and sometimes purchasing new equipment just to continue on being able to qualify getting the depreciation and now as Ben mentioned, with the work from home a lot, there's you know, there's a whole other opportunities for for depreciating purchases, whether it's, you know, technology and as you said, planning it out whether or not you're going to buy it all at once, or spread it out over multiple years. So you can, you know, qualify for a higher deduction or whether or not you want to save that up for another year and take the standard deduction, So, definitely can get creative with it.

Yeah, we did, we did a show a while back about people who kind of like, you know, got the PPP loan, and, you know, it wasn't used for employees, and they were buying stuff, you remember that stuff, some guy bought, like a Lamborghini or something crazy. It was just crazy. You know, and, you know, but you might, you know, I mean, different people in different scenarios, they had tough, a tough quarter. You know, I know, I know this from personal circumstances, but, you know, from a client, but they had a tough quarter PPV money came through, it became a cash flow, revenue business pick back up, and then it surged. And then all of a sudden, they had extra money. And we were talking about it, we said, Listen, you know, this is this PPV, money was for you, under Wellington, you know, use this to frontline your business to protect it from those drops in the future, what would you need to implement with those dollars today, so the next time there's a scenario like that, you don't have that law, because that PPV money may not be there. So use that to business, ensure business, protect business build, you know, start  gating your business in a way that, you know, you have walls up that protect yourself from that kind of stuff, but tax; taxes itemization how to handle that kind of ideas around that give us a call. I mean, this is something we work with business owners constantly on so we've heard how other people are you utilizing the tax laws, not not manipulating utilizing the tax laws for their benefit, we might have some wisdom to share on with you, because what I find is that people want to sit down with their CPA like April 14, you know, the day before filing or in this year, you know, may 14, or whatever. But, yeah, they're all right, they're ready to go out to coffee or lunch with you. Now they are on their hand, yes, taxes are filed, they're free, they're going on vacation. Yeah, you want to spend all the time in the world, now's the time to get in touch with a CPA, now's the time to plan for next year, and get things ramped up. And, you know, this is a constant conversation with people is getting to sit down with your CPA and your financial advisor and get that stuff organized. Well, there's so many different places that people can go to try to find that. And actually, while you're saying that I just had an idea, if your CPA is doing a lot of people's taxes, he or she's actually probably seeing a lot of these side gigs come through or side hustles come through, and would maybe be a person that you'd want to talk to you and say, Hey, who are you seeing? Or what are you seeing that's actually successful, because there can be a lot of places out there, people just dump money and don't find that they're successful, there's, there's a certain kind of person that you really do need to be able to sit down and work and be able to focus and try to get something like this launched. And, you know, I've just seen a fair amount of people just kind of like, go from one thing to the next and think it's gonna be the next you know, kind of get rich quick deal. And what I've seen more successful is a lot of people just doing some, you know, client like customer service type of activity where there may be a tutor or they're, you know, an elder care online educator, kind of a thing, helping helping that population with some of the the challenges of COVID there's some rural needs out there, and that's a great way to connect and maybe find, find what's gonna work for you, folks, you're listening to Money On Tap, and we've been talking about side gigs here, we've talked about all not necessarily side gig side hustles but business owners benefits of owning your own business. And we'd love a chance to share our experience with you here as business owners and and frankly, I think all of us kind of have an entrepreneurial spirit about us that we just, that's one of my passions is really helping people in those businesses as business owners and and, and then I think it I've constantly having conversation with you around these ideas as well. And Tony, you've got a ton of experience, yourself and in your family with developing business and, and, and in being business owners in different areas. So it's a it's a it's a lot of fun. It's a ton of information, a wealth of information we have here ready for you. You can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com, folks, we've been talking about benefits of owning a business. And you know, one of the things that that we see a lot this is very common with, with clients and families is there's been a stay at home parent, or primary parent that really has taken some time out of the workforce and getting, you know, the kids kind of moved on and getting back to the workforce. This is one of the places where, you know, maybe the skills don't translate as well into corporate or some of those other areas where you're, you know, putting your resume out there. Owning your own business and buying your own business can be one of those, one of those great opportunities at this time. And, and speaking of buying your own business, Ben, I want to ask you, how's Tim doing?

Tim's doing good, Tim's doing good. He's talking about my brother in law, Tim Johnson, he has a company, it's first choice Business Brokers, it's called first choice, somebody you can get in touch with Tim is a, he's an amazing person who has gifts of management that are unlike almost second to none. I mean, the guy has worked for major corporations. And he got to the point where he got tired of working for other people, but he's so organized, he can almost step into any business no matter what it is, run it more efficiently and more effectively. And then he has sold the business. And he has done that so many times that he actually started helping people buy businesses, he works with him. And he helps people find businesses and he helps actually pair them with the right kind of business for them. Like, they might say, Hey, I'm looking to do this many hours, I'm looking to do this, these are my skill sets as well. And he has so much familiarity with owning so many businesses and having done it successfully, he not only helps them find the business helps match him up with the kind that would they be most likely to be successful with. But take the skill sets that they have, and try to match them up with businesses that are undervalued because they lack those skill sets. So that they can really maximize and it's really very interesting. And so you know, if you're listening to this show today, and you're saying yourself, I don't have a side hustle, I don't have a small business, but I'd like to have one and I do need some tax deductions. And I'm looking to have that business to be able to facilitate that, besides owning an apartment and renting it out or something like that. Give us a call, we have a contact for you. We have somebody who can can help you. And I mean, he's obviously my brother in law, but he is extremely good at this. And this is what he does professionally. Now. Tim Johnson First Choice Business Brokers, and he covers I think the entire eastern seaboard. So that's, you know, and if you're looking to sell a business, he does that, too. he'll sell and help you find the person who matches up with that. Seth, we should probably have a show with Tim on time to talk a little bit about of his experiences and what he's done that might really be, you know, valuable for people to hear what kind of businesses they engage with where to go, how to get there. I think we should do that here soon. Yeah, I mean, I would just have a lot of fun doing that with Tim, let's make it happen. Yeah, absolutely. I'll do that. As that, you know, you mentioned women and men and looking for part time roles and stuff like that. But I gotta tell you, there's so many people out there specifically women who have been able to create a small business, run it from home and be with their for their kids, when they go off to school, when they come home, it's really afforded them to give them the freedom to have a little bit of a, you know, a kind of a stay at home mother experience. But you know, not feel like they're gone nine to five child's daycare, I miss all their games, like if they wanted to get rid of that, that that's been a huge, a huge win for the stay at home mom. concept. So and it was just another thought there, as you'd mentioned.

Yeah, there's, you know, last but not least, the opportunity to follow your dreams. When you're engaged and really following your dreams. There's, there's so many benefits, you know, outside of just the financial part there being a creator, and having the flexibility to do what you're what you're really passionate about. There's health benefits that can come alongside of that. I think we're really big here, money on tap on freedom. It's a huge gift that we have here. And the ability to follow our dreams and matching you up with that and having those conversations how you can do that how you can craft that. That's one of the things we really enjoys doing with our clientele and our partners here to you've been listening to money on tap, you can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. You can also find us at Facebook, we're at \3dinvesting. We're also on Twitter at BFG_LLC. And as always, you can also find us at your moneyontap.com. Thanks for listening. Thanks for liking our podcast. We appreciate you and we can't wait to make it a great day and a great life with you here at Money On tap.

The views expressed are not necessarily the opinion of this radio station and should not be construed directly or indirectly as an offer to buy or sell any securities mentioned herein investing is subject to risks including loss of principal invested No strategy product material or tool mentioned can assure a profit or protect against loss. Please note that individual situations can vary therefore, the information products materials or tools mentioned should be relied upon when coordinated with individual professional advice. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results. This show may be subsidised in whole or in part by a product sponsor or issuer, securities and advisory services offered through sagepoint financial incorporated member FINRA SIPC, and a registered investment advisor. All other services offered through Brayshaw Financial Group LLC are independent of sagepoint financial sagepoint financial and Brayshaw Financial Group do not provide tax or legal advice main office is located at 116 South River Road, Bedford, New Hampshire 03110 and can be reached at Toll Free 855-226-8551

Well, bye.

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MOT 171 Summary Social Security Taxes

On this episode of Money on Tap, Ben and Seth cover social security taxes. They talk about how your social security income is getting taxed, and what are some of the options you have to maximize that income.

Ben and Seth also discuss Warren Buffett’s departure from Wells Fargo, a more than 31-year-old investment, after numerous customer service scandals, the digital hacking of the Colonial Pipeline, and the rise in the number of Americans moving states for tax purposes.

MOT 171 Transcript Social Security Taxes

Welcome to “Money on Tap”

[Music]

“Money on Tap”, your personal finance headquarters, where we bring out the professionals experienced in some fun, in what we call three-dimensional investing – utilizing insurance, brokerage, and fee-based planning. That’s what we do on this show, we look at all sides of the issues, we bring a fully independent planning perspective to the table.

Seth: Welcome back you’re listening to Money on Tap. My name is Seth Krussman. Ben, how are you doing today?

Ben: I'm doing good Seth

Seth: That’s Ben Brayshaw in case you were wondering. We’ve got such a great show for you guys today; we’re going to be talking about social security taxes

Ben: Social security taxes?

Seth: Yeah, I mean that’s an oxymoron right? Its like, here’s your social security, oh yeah by the way we’re going to take that back

Ben: Yeah, you know I'm excited about this show for the people who are really focused on you know maximizing the income, focused on where their income is coming from, and honestly, addressing how so much of our money gets funneled out on simple things like your social security income getting taxed, and people don’t even realize all the different minutia that plays into your tax return that ends up saying, hey listen we’re adding this much social security back in and you're going to have to pay it back to the US government. It’s like wait a minute, that’s not how people see it, but when they get their first tax return back and they're hit by that, it’s a shocking revelation

Seth: Yeah, and believe it or not there are ways that you can craft your income – I like to craft it

Ben: That’s a good word for you, Seth. That’s a good word for you you liked crafting that

Seth: I'm not super crafty, I'm not a crafty guy, but when it comes – that one there, I'm like we can pull this thing off, I think we can get some Elmer’s glue and some popsicle sticks and make it happen

Ben: Well right now with the amount of people working from home they probably all got a little school project with their kids they can grab that stuff with I'm sure so, but, this is not going to be that easy, but there's going to be a lot of, well this is the one concern I have, we both talked about this with the show, a lot of people we are going to potentially lose in the complexity of the information. So that is an issue. So bare with us, but I think we’re going to walk through it in a way you’ll be able to tangibly use this, and at least go have a confident conversation with your CPA or your tax provider or whoever

Seth: And if you’ve already started to look at your Pinterest feed or something else – shame on you. We shame you’re here at Money on Tap

Ben: Seth, you know the thing about this show is, what I'm actually thinking about is like, hey listen tax season just ended and a few of you are getting your tax returns back, we just went through Covid, you're trying to maximize your income, you're looking at what your want to do, hey you just ended up having a forced year off, and hey listen you just took some of my social security back, how do I deal with that? And I think this is a really kind of good moving forward thing as people are changing their budget, realizing that income matters, and starting to evaluate how to get that in the most effective way

Seth: Yeah. Hey, you know what else is good moving forward? You can call us at 855-226-8551 or you can reach us at info@yourmoneyontap.com. Now there's other ways out there, we’re not going to get into all the other ways you can reach us but, or why, but if some of this information pertains to you, i.e. you're going to retire, or would like to retire, or are in retirement, then yeah give us a call we’d love to help you out, we’d love to work out some of the ways we can craft together and see what we can come up with with reducing some of those social security tax abilities

Before we get into that, it is time for Money in the News

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Seth: First up folks, I always love it, this is a really easy thing, kind of a lay up for us when we start looking at what’s going on in the world today, anytime I see our friend over at Berkshire Hathaway making moves, we got to talk about it, got to talk about it, and yeah what does Buffett do? He’s out, he’s out –

Ben: Almost

Seth: of Wells Fargo

Ben: Almost. This is crazy. Buffett has been a Wells Fargo all in since like 1989. You know 32 years almost of investing in Wells Fargo, believing in a company brand, and just says, in its regulatory filing on Monday, said it owned 26.4 million shares in the fourth largest US bank as of March 31^st, down from around 32 billion in January of 2018. Now this article comes from Reuters, Jonathan Stempel, and he does a good job at kind of bringing about the impact, the magnitude, of Buffett just saying, hey listen Wells, we’re done with you. I mean we’re done with you on almost every level. I mean they dumped almost everything that they own in there. Now this comes based on a huge amount, I mean there's a lawsuit that was settled for, oh gosh for all sorts of you know, misgivings and poor representation of issues, scandals, mistreating customers. Seth, here why don’t you speak a little bit about that I know you have some knowledge on that area

Seth: Yeah, thanks Ben. There's just a little bit of history between myself and good old Wells Fargo and you know, personal stuff aside, I'm no longer a client how about that

[Laughter]

I went out on a good day that was the thing, before I fired Wells Fargo, is like, you know what, I'm not going to do it when I'm really really frustrated with them about the situation, I'm going to do it on a good day. So, but what were they doing with clients and customers, myself no longer one of them, it just was a ton of cross-selling, and it was upselling, and it was not based off of a customer’s ultimate, really it wasn’t based off of their needs, and it just overstepped a boundary that well, proof was in the pudding and I mean it was back as far as 2008, a long time ago, but they just didn’t do enough soon enough to make Mr. Buffett happy about their response and how they took care of their clients

Ben: Yeah, I think the thing is, I think ultimately the goals of the cross-selling and trying to make the most of the relationship and so forth, it just went too far is what it sounds like from the article, and I think you know, I would say the article does not say that Buffett kind of you know ran away from a kind of bad integrity issue, but it kind of alludes to that. I mean it kind of alludes that he's just done with that longstanding relationship, he expected more from them, a higher quality. There's adjectives in this article that kind of allude to that and now whether or not that’s really case I'm not sure. I am an owner, I own Wells Fargo stock, I mean you know it was something I bought with a number of different you know financials that I bought during the fall, the crisis, in Covid, I looked at all these bank stocks saying undervalued and I purchased some so I mean in full disclosure I own them, so this stuff does concern me but what I do think is really interesting, right, Buffett sells 26.4 – was it million – shares and yet the stock closes up after all of that

Seth: Somebody had to buy them

Ben: I know but the thing is if you think about it, right, if stocks going up right Seth, I mean more people are buying than people are selling and Buffett was one of the biggest owners of it, so kind of shocking to see that outcome in the stock even with that amount of selling, which is really interesting so

Seth: Yeah it did not make a whole lot of sense but you know what Ben, you're thank goodness one of the beneficiaries, I'm happy for you 

Ben: If you’d held on to it I’d be a bigger beneficiary

Seth: Folks did you know there was a little thing that happened last week, or a week or two ago now, over in New Jersey, I mean actually it was kind of a big thing right? The pipeline that got hijacked, and immediately I'm thinking of Bruce Willis, right, and Die Hard-est, would that be a Die Hard four or something like that? But that’s not what we’re talking about; we’re talking about the digital hijacking of the Colonial Pipeline and the payoff of 4.4 million dollars

Ben: Well first of all, how many people even knew Colonial Pipeline even existed before the hack, right, I mean I don’t think anyone had any idea and I don’t think anyone had idea that this private company provides roughly 45% of all the East Coast fuel

Seth: That blew me away

Ben: Right? That blows me away too. You have a private company who has literally the lion share control, I mean if anything all of our enemies have realized that we need to diversify, we have a monopoly issue going on here and it needs to be addressed. There's a vulnerability here, I mean we couldn’t even get, I mean they were struggling with planes getting in the air, there was a concern of like, hey listen if this lasts much longer we can’t fly people places without trucking the fuel all up and down the East Coast and from the West, I mean this reminds me kind of like the Civil War conversation of when you know Grant literally started shutting down, like his focus was to shut down the railroad system so they couldn’t get supplies. And I think –

Seth: Say that again. Like okay you're going way back there

Ben: Oh yeah I'm jumping back Civil War buddy, like this is standard military procedure, let’s shut them down

Seth: My Covid brain can’t handle that hold on a second

Ben: You know when they shut down, the whole goal was to shut down the railroad system to stop supplies and that’s how they beat the South, that’s how we beat the South. And so when you think about that they, I mean that’s what the ultimate –

Seth: I like it how you say you beat them

Ben: I know

Seth: I'm from here in Portland and I'm not even a part of that conversation

Ben: Seth you don’t even know where the Mason Dixon line is c’mon buddy

[Laughter]

Ben: So anyways, I mean when you really break down the vulnerability that this exposed for our country it’s phenomenal, but they paid Mr. Blount, Joseph Blount CEO of the Colonial Pipeline, paid 4.4 million dollars to –

Seth: Or his insurance did

Ben: Yeah, something did, somebody paid it

Seth: The cyber-insurance did

Ben: The cyber-insurance did. Yeah, I mean but even then, and they had this whole group of people negotiating with these, you know the dark, they call it the Darkside, I mean what was that, dark something or other, something out of a bad movie here

Seth: It’s pretty bad

Ben: And anyways they ended up paying him out in you know basically, coin

Seth: It’s a digital currency

Ben: Digital currency I mean –

Seth: Should we call it what it is?

Ben: Probably not, but its interesting, we were laughing about this, funny that basically all these digital currencies have taken a huge pullback with all the stuff that’s happened, I'm glad these hackers got like probably 30 or 40% less when it’s all said and done now

Seth: Now they got like 2 million over there. After they divvied it up among their cyber gang

Ben: Yeah, it’s Darkside

Seth: Of Eastern Europe

Ben: It is Darkside

Seth: Oh yeah, I'm sitting here looking at it, I just loved, I was hoping you might come up with some other names. See what else you got in the reservoir

Ben: Well anyways, this is, I mean I'm concerned; I'm concerned about a bunch of things. One, I'm concerned about all the different moving parts here, why a private company has that much power, I'm concerned about a lot of companies having private power. I thought it was interesting too that Darkside claims all sorts of different things. I found another article on the cyber attack from The New York Times, which said, it was talking about basically that, I'm going to quote here, we’re also to pursue and measure to disrupt their ability to operate, Mr. Biden said, in the line that seemed to hint that the United States cyber command, the military cyber warfare force, was being authorized to kick Darkside offline, much as it did to another ransomware group in the fall ahead of the presidential election. So I thought I was interesting that hers a whole other colonial article mentioning the presidential election and meanwhile we have like a bunch of people saying its impossible to hack our election system but they can hack the largest pipeline scenario we have out there. And I also think how stupid it is, and if you don’t agree with me tough luck because how stupid is it when we have the vulnerability of one pipeline that’s 5500 miles long for us to kick off this Keystone pipeline and say we’re not going to finish that when we have a vulnerability that’s 45% in the Southeast when we only have one pipeline basically, you know, for Canada now. I mean –

Seth: I wonder if there's, if a pipeline that covers 45, or provides 45% of the oil for the East coast might have a little bit of sway in trying to persuade that Keystone pipeline from not being completed

Ben: Well they don’t really have much to do with the Keystone, you're talking about the South verses the, you know North

Seth: I don’t even care about the South or the North

Ben: Of course, it’s more valuable

Seth: We don’t care

Ben: Well it’s more valuable for them, right, no I get it, I get it

Seth: We’re geographically challenged

Ben: But the thing is that if we don’t realize the need for more pipelines and we have one company that’s 45% of it, or we have allowed them to acquire up to 45% of the East coast need, that’s a problem. And it definitely spouts out that we need more people, more companies, that competition to break down these monopolies because, I mean, we’ve got I mean they talked about this Darkside –

Seth: I would say that is a monopoly right there

Ben: Oh absolutely. It says hours later, I'm quoting this New York Times article again, hours later the group Internet sites went dark. By early Friday Darkside and several other ransomware groups including Babuk, which has hacked Washington DC’s police department, again another government organization we can hack, announced they were getting out of the game. They retired, okay folks, one of the cyber organizations retired. For us to think that all of this stuff is nonsense, you know the elections couldn’t get hacked, the pipeline got hacked, but I mean it’s just we have one piece of crap news after another and, I'm sorry I'm just going off on my little tangent here, but this is a real problem and our country is not really addressing it well. And I thought it was really kind of, they didn’t once say at all, I can’t find anywhere how they got hacked. I mean if anyone knows please let me know. I've researched this, I can’t find, was it an email opened, I mean I may have missed it in the article somewhere but I've read a couple articles on it. I mean this is a, this is a big deal, I mean we don’t have a clue what they did, so how do we all protect ourselves against it, and what's the next pipeline and how are they sharing information to deal with this

Seth: Yeah, those are real concerns and good questions, and if you weren’t quite done hearing the rest of what Ben had to say there then give him a call at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com because he would love to have a deeper conversation with you about that. And I just happen to have a couple of friends that work in that field that would love to have actually you know more of like an end, how do they help you not only stay secured, how do they help you be insured because, I've had friends, you're right it’s just open an email and its like boom their computer is locked up and there's nothing they can do. If they haven’t backed that thing up or already taken the precautions, that’s it, that’s it. So Ben, I feel like you’ve got more to say there and I'm just, I'm going to go onto the next article here, okay, before we get halfway into the show just on Money in the News

Ben: I have nothing else to say Seth

Seth: Whether or not you do, whether or not you do, I'm going to talk more about taxes because we’re going to talk about taxes motivating people to do some different things, possibly what could that be? Well, some lower tax states won big in 2020, is what this article is saying, that Americans are really moving to escape the taxman, and this is from Andrew Keshner, MarketWatch. It was a really fun read to go through and actually I thought it was a really good job, I thought it was a fair and balanced article that really brought up a couple of think tanks out there that are trying to take a look at this information and say, well is it the taxes that are the reason people are moving to the Southwest, or what are all the other motivating factors?

Ben: Well I think it’s interesting they talk about how California and New York are two of the seven states basically poised to lose seats in Congress because so many people have left their state. I mean that’s crazy and then you got Florida and Texas –

Seth: I just call that an answer to prayer I don’t know what you call it

Ben: Well I'm not sure that I do Seth because I'm looking at it saying, you have the two most liberal states and these people are moving for, I mean potentially they're conservative people moving to conservative states right, to keep it all balanced, but honestly I know, we have clients that we disagree politically but we get along great and you know it doesn’t really matter but, on the outside of this thing I look at it and say, if you sat there and you elected somebody in a democratic state that you supported and then you're moving away from there because you don’t like the current status of the state, don’t go to a new state and vote in basically the stupidity of what these states have done. Right, I mean don’t move to Florida and start voting a bunch of idiots back in, I mean that’s not what we’re here to do, I mean we need to get this country under control

Seth: You just brought up some really funny things that I've seen on social media with people in Texas doing, you know having some different statements about that whole thing happening right there, is people from California moving into Texas and saying no you guys are doing it all wrong here this is what you need to do

Ben: I know it’s like you voted all these people in you're going to come here and you're now going to vote the same way but you left where you were at. I mean it’s really kind of very; it’s humorous that people don’t even understand that or perceive that, I think it’s crazy. I look at New Hampshire and say, hey I love New Hampshire but I mean we’ve done a really bad job about putting the people in place in a lot of ways. I mean I'm not really a big fan of where things are going in this state, I mean I look at it and have a lot of concerns

Seth: I think the first place where you maybe stepped off out of balance there was just having this assumption that people are self-aware

[Laughter]

Seth: probably doesn’t lend itself to the outcome. So I’ll just say, there is all sorts of numbers, there was all sorts of outcomes here and I think that was, at the end of the article, if I wanted to kind of sum it up and say well what was the outcome, I mean was there a cause relationship with where people are going in the US? You know people are moving for all sorts of reasons and I don’t know how many of your friends or family have moved and they called you up and said, you know the taxes right, that’s why I'm doing what I'm doing today

Ben: Oh yeah. No, no there is some of that though, there are lawsuits all over the place between Mass and New Hampshire for income tax issues because people are working from home and they're saying well where do you report, so you know I mean there's lots, I mean people have, I mean people have –

Seth: Well people here too, I mean like Portland, Vancouver, Vancouver, Washington is right across the river, you know, family, they're living in Vancouver because the tax situation is what it is and its right there, I mean it’s practically Portland. I'm not saying that it’s not a motivation to like go like state to state but I mean we’re talking about like California moving to where? Texas?

Ben: Well I’d be happy with them just moving to Portland or Vancouver

Seth: They do. Oh yeah we just gained a seat buddy. We’re at a 9.9% tax rate, so that goes against the whole code right

Ben: Well not when you're at 12% in California so I mean they're still going down. Okay, so, you make a great point. I mean there's clearly there is clearly some, the numbers say there is some move for taxes, but if you're stuck at home you're like, well you know what I'm just going to go somewhere where I don’t have to be stuck in my house

Seth: Yeah

Ben: Anyways I think that does it for Money in the News for us. Hey listen if it wasn’t for taxes and it wasn’t for trying to save people tax dollars like we’re going to get into here in a minute with social security and trying to save you the tax dollars on those numbers, we wouldn’t have much of a show Seth, I got to be honest with you. Well expect for your blooming personality

Seth: That’s what I'm here for, I appreciate you for it, thanks a lot Ben

You're listening to Money on Tap. You can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. We are going to be talking about all those lovely tax dollars coming out of your social security or not, depending on how your income is coming through. So can’t wait to get into that with you Ben. Don’t go anywhere we’ll be right back

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Seth: We have a lot of fun doing this show, Money on Tap, and Ben and I have been financial planners for years and years and our goal here with you is to bring you into the room, have the conversations that we have, we think these are critical conversations for you, but we understand this is a limited space and what we’d love to do is to open the doors to you with us at Brayshaw Financial Group so you could experience what it means so have three-dimensional planning in your life. Let’s take a look at all sides of your situation, your scenario, and see how we can out together the best plan possible, taking into account your risk. How much can you have in the market? How much do we need to have set aside and doing different things for your life? That’s what we do as planners, how we engage with you, and we welcome you to do that with us. You can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. Now if you have $250, 000 of investable assets today our plan is free to you. We want you to have the playbook to have a successful experience in retirement. Give us a call, 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. Ben and I welcome you to Brayshaw Financial for complete wealth management

Now back to Money on Tap with Ben and Seth

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Seth: Welcome back you're listening to Money On Tap You can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. And folks if you have made it through Ben and myself and all of our Money in the News that we just brought to you

Ben: If you're still a listener

Seth: You stuck around for the meat of the show, ok, and we know that we talk about taxes, we talk about financial planning, and its just, it is what it is, you know, and what I mean by that is, if you have income, you probably have taxes, you probably live somewhere, and we got to try to understand this stuff. And one of the things that most people just don’t even really understand around how income and retirement income and taxes work is that they probably are paying taxes on their social security, or if you do understand that, you may not realize that there's some ways to put your income together differently to affect the taxes that you're getting taken out of those social security benefits. And that’s what this show is about and there are going to be numbers involved. There's going to be some part of this that might just be a little drier than others but it is the cake that we bake, you know. At the end of it we want to put this thing together in a way for you that really allows you to have control over the product, over the outcome, of your income. And that income can really mean a big difference from you know, decisions that you make all the time

Ben: You know Seth, you know one of the things about preparing income is just how much you get to keep, I mean that’s what people really, I mean that’s the conversation a lot of people don’t really understand how to communicate to financial people or CPAs is like, I just want to keep more, this is how much you need to keep. I tell you people come in the office and say, you know this is how much income I need and I'm like, is that how much you need to keep or is that how much you need to make? Because you don’t know how they're calculating it. Everyone is looking at it differently, and you’d think most of them are like well I need $50, 000 to live off of, well that’s one way of communicating it but you still don’t know if they're calculating their taxes in that. And so we have to have that clear conversation and invariably every one of the people who are entering retirement right now are absolutely considering that social security is a primary provider for their retirement

I would say that people in our, you know 25 year-old age bracket don’t consider social security as even a possibility, right, so us twenty year olds we’re out there we’re saying hey listen social security is not going to be there for us, and folks I'm just kidding we’re not in our twenties, but that’s really, there's a big disparity between ages of who thinks social security is going to play that primary role or be an instrumental in their retirement and who doesn’t think that. And everybody in between has some variable of that, I mean I honestly got to tell you, I'm not sure that social security is going to play much if any role in my retirement, I just don’t think so. I mean I'm not preparing for that, I mean the clients I work with in our age bracket I communicate that, I'm not sure, I mean I know it’s by the claims paying ability by the US government and yadda, yadda, yadda, but my last social security statement that they mailed to me, which was forever ago, said that in 2034 they were going to run out of money in social security, so to me that tells me they're going to run out before I retire so, those are the kinds of things that I'm concerned about. And I look at the hundred and some odd trillion dollars of basically unrealized, you know, expenses we have coming as something that we’re not really sure that our government’s going to be able to pay, and that makes a big deal. So in the early years its important to see how you can maximize your income, and that really brings in a lot of different issues when it comes to social security because there are people out there, and Seth you’ve seen it a zillion times, where they say hey listen, why, I don’t know if its 17 or 18 or 19 on your 1040, but it says hey this is your social security, it’s kind of in the middle of the page, and then to the right if it has a number written in there it’s a percentage of that social security or there's nothing there. And if they're bringing that number all the way over to the right that means it’s getting added back into your income to be taxable. And people say, hey wait wait I wasn’t planning on, I'm in full retirement age, I thought I could make anything I want and you know like all this stuff and it’s just not the case. It’s just not the case

Seth: I mean I feel like my hands are tied here, right, when we just talk about this because it’s like, what am I going to do, I mean as far as, you know, how to adjust my gross income, or you know, gosh, I mean, because that’s not a goal I have, to lower my income. You know what are some of the other things I can do to try to lower my taxes or try to move this number one direction or another

Well, you know some of the factors that people don’t, I mean, don’t realize early on is you know they have the ability to kind of convert where their money is. You can move money from one place to another, and depending on where you're at, and this is much more preferable for a lot of people to be doing this planning work ahead of time, to be able to maybe pay taxes where their at right now and maybe move some money into another direction where it won’t be seen as a taxable, or a line item affecting that social security tax. And what do I mean by that? Well Seth, I'm talking to myself right here folks, what I mean by that is I'm talking about taking, for instance, ordinary income, or what would be considered ordinary income, in your retirement, which would be your IRA money, ok, take that IRA money that you're collecting right now, or that 401k money that you're collecting right now, and try to put it in to a tax advantage retirement account like a Roth IRA. And there's other places to put this as well, it’s just one of them that you know shows up for us, people for the most part we all kind of get that, and some 401k’s have that option within the 401k to move those moneys over to the Roth, so what is that going to do? Well, what that’s going to do for one, it’s going to create some taxability right now in this current year, and paying the taxes right now will then create, well basically that money will go over into the Roth where you won’t have to account for that as income towards your social security

Ben: You know Seth you make a great point about the Roth, because the Roth comes to you as tax free income, and I think that’s really good. People are like, well why is that important, when do I become vulnerable, when is my income issue a problem when it comes to social security? And it’s probably going to shock a lot of people here that are listening because basically your social security starts getting added back in when your gross income, including social security, is at least $25, 000. Now for a lot of people they're easily crossing that number with social security. And then we have this whole mass, so its $25, 000 for couples filing jointly with a 50% calculation of adding social security over, and for merit filing jointly its like 32, 000, but they add 85% of your social security benefits in to be taxable when your individual income is 34, 000 and your gross joint income is over 44, 000. So let me back up that’s a lot of numbers. So basically you're telling me Ben that somewhere between 2000 and 1500 bucks a month of income for me makes my social security benefits taxable? And I'm saying yeah, roughly yes, you need to start having a conversation with your tax person. That’s a 50% level. Now if you're making somewhere between 3000 and almost 4000 dollars a month in income about 85% of your social security benefits are going to be added back in to be taxable. That’s a big deal. Now there's a lot of things that people don’t understand about this, because it’s not just like, hey I work this side job, I'm doing this, I'm doing that, they're adding all sorts of income in. They're even adding in, and I want everyone to listen very carefully, because this is one of the things that is like, I feel like it’s a kick in the teeth, this is that one item, that one nugget that everyone’s like, really? And this is where they add in those muni bonds, you know those things that people say, hey buy these municipal bonds, get some tax free income you know, and whether it’s state or federal, you know whatever, irrelevant, it’s like hey –

Seth: I saw an advertisement for that just the other day

Ben: Yeah I mean people are always advertising these tax free bonds. Well they are tax free, but the income from those municipal bonds is added back in to do the calculation of whether or not they bring your social security in to be taxed. And this is a big big deal because a lot of people will say, oh, I mean I've met financial advisor after financial advisor who have shoved people into large tax free bond options to basically give the client tax free income, and then all of a sudden their social security starts getting added back in and your like, what the? Why aren’t people educated on this? It’s just because they don’t know it. And so if you are, you know have a lot of tax free bonds and that’s part of your primary goal, go check that. I can’t remember if it’s line 17, 18, 19, I’ll have to check that out, but if have a question give us a call, you can bring your tax return in, I can tell you in two minutes first page whether or not you're paying taxes on social security, and a sit down meeting in probably an hour can figure out whether or not you know, we can try to get that number down or reduce your taxes or restructure because there's lots of opportunities, and you know Seth you bring up Roth and I think that’s where planning comes into place. We talk to people all the time and you know they don’t want to pay an advisor to do their work and they don’t want, they’ve been educated that fees and expenses and commissions and all this stuff, they're just bad, they're all bad. Well if you're not getting anything for it I would say you're over paying, I would say it’s not bad. And yeah am I biased, is that how we get compensated? Absolutely, that’s who we are. But if you are paying an advisor to provide you income as much as they possibly can and they don’t know these simple moves to help you, that’s how we pay for our services, we bring value to the table. And so that’s one of the things where I think a lot of people hear, listen if you own muni bonds you need to really be aware of this because that is going to impact your social security and whether it is taxed

Seth: Well said. And with that I will tell you, you can call us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. You're listening to Money on Tap and we’re talking about how social security is getting taxed in retirement and what are some of the options here, right, that’s it, we want to know. I mean some of these things we may or may not choose to do but at least we understand we have some options here. You can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com, we’re going to take a quick break and we’ll be back before you know it

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For a number of our listeners they have a lot of questions and you might be one of them. Today we’re just offering what we call Zoominars, webinars over Zoom meeting rooms, where we have top experts, social security, estate planning, and financial planning experts, for you to speak with, do a private consultation that way today. We’re also having webinar based Zoominars where we are going to have multiple groups where you can be a part of that and enjoy that as well. Give us a call at 855-226-8551 or email us at info@yourmoneyontap.com to schedule your Zoominar

Now back to Money on Tap with Ben and Seth

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Seth: Welcome back you're listening to Money on Tap you can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. And we are talking today about your income through social security and what percentage of that income may be taxed, and how does that work, and what are some different things that we can do in planning ahead of time for those distributions in income to lower the tax ability of our social security maybe, that’s a part of it, or maybe we’ve got some things going on right now that we’re just taking income and you know the question is how do we just, what are some different things that we can do to affect that. And a lot of people in retirement use all sorts of things, I mean there's the typical IRA, we talked about Roth IRA and how that’s not taxable income and that doesn’t count towards the taxability of your social security income, and another place that people love to get income and use as a tool for income is an annuity. An annuity doesn’t always work the same way in its income, right, so what do I mean by that? Okay so let’s just say for instance you put $100, 000 in an annuity and you grow that to $200, 000 and you're like hey I want some income from that, so you take that $10, 000 out of that annuity for some income. Now we haven’t annuitized this, we haven’t turned it into you know the 10 year, or lifelong, or whatever the option is that you want to choose, we haven’t annuitized this thing yet, we’re just taking some of this out, well, that $10, 000 is all going to be accounted as ordinary income and all going to be added back into the equation towards the taxability of your social security

Ben: I think that’s really, Seth that’s great and I think the thing is really to emphasize is it’s taxable as income, even though it’s money you gained in the annuity. Annuities’ gain is taxed as ordinary income, which is going to impact, I mean a lot of people just say, oh just send me 10 grand right, I mean and all of a sudden it’s like, it hits your bottom line and it’s like, that’s a lot of money

Seth: Yeah, yeah it is and at the end of the day it could affect that social security and how that’s getting taxed and what I was, I was trying to think of where, where was I going with this, oh yes that’s right, we’re going with the annuitization option of the annuity, which is maybe one of those things if you’ve got a great deal going and you’ve got some growth going on and it’s working for you in the background, maybe your just like try and really hold off on the annuitization of that. Well if you were to annuitize that how would that change this, okay, first of all that’s going to break down that distribution for you and the tax ability of that distribution because it’s going to spread out those gains over the life of the distribution of that annuity for you. And that’s one of the ways that you can, in creating income and retirement that we take a look at, is what do we have available that we can really kind of try to create slices of that principal and then break down that growth or that part that would be considered that ordinary income or all of it being income, and by that we can take that $10, 000 distribution and we can really create a much smaller number that gets added back towards

Ben: You know Seth you had said gain and it is true it does spread the gain out but it also spreads the principal out, I think that’s what you meant to say

Seth: Principal as well

Ben: So I mean that’s really, the exclusion ratio point there is huge and I think the thing is or what a lot of people don’t understand is sometimes it’s just how you manipulate your investments that really make them powerful. Like that piece alone in that illustration like if 50% of that was gain and 50% of that was principal, in the illustration number one, that you just gave $10, 000 would be added to your taxable income, which you know we’re talking about your social security starts getting taxed to $24, 000 of income or $25, 000 of income you know on a single person so, if you're taking $10, 000 out of an annuity and your getting a decent social security you're already irrelevant of your IRAs and everything else or pension or whatever, you know you’ve already got, you're way over, and so if you do something like this and all of a sudden you still get that same $10, 000 distribution and 5000 of its principal and 5000 of its gain, well now you’ve just reduced the amount of reportable income, the money you're writing down on things no longer 10, 000, you're writing down 5000 on your tax form. That’s going to change everything for some people, and so these little tricks, now full disclosure you annuitize an annuity you're probably going in to like a very very low return, but if your tax savings is huge it could offset whatever return sacrifice you're doing because you have to do those calculations to really figure out where your really benefiting the most from, and that’s just, honestly Seth I mean how many people just aren’t doing this work. And that’s a big big question and CPAs always say, oh wow I'm glad you noticed what an exclusion ratio is, oh that’s good that you did that, they never tell us to do it, they never instruct their client to do it, their client never asks them at tax time, hey listen how do I save money and they're like hey well you just got to do things differently. I mean that’s really their response you know, so those are big issues.

I'm glad you brought up the annuity. The other think about an annuity that’s coming to mind as you're saying that Seth, and I didn’t really plan on talking about this, but people generate income from all sorts of different investments. Now sometimes you might be able to find an annuity that can replace, or get you like kind investment options, and maybe, because annuity is, they tax defer just like an IRA would with after tax money, so you might be able to take a brokerage account and move it to a different type of annuity, maybe give up some types of investments, but you get others or similar ones, but you tax defer some of that stuff and maybe that brings your reportable income down a little bit too. I mean it’s all a process, right

Seth: Yeah, so that brings up a good question. What is your process, what is your process, how are you working out your income? Have you gone the route of, well I've got social security and it’s coming in the door, and I've got this IRA over here, and that much money over there I need from that, or I've got this real estate over here and I've got this – you know, what is your process that you are working out these numbers and taking a look at your options? We’re here to help. You can give us a call at 855-226-8551, info@yourmoneyontap.com is how you can get a hold of us and we can take a look at these things with you and start to develop a playbook, we call it a financial plan, alright, and in that we take a look at where are these pieces coming through, how are they getting taxed, what are the outcomes, and what are the different options that you have. At the end of the day you may turn around and say, hey that’s great, wonderful, thank you, my simple playbook, my simple process here that I have is working just great – that’s great. Most of the time what we find out is that there are so many different ways that we can start to enhance, not only possibly your current income, but also, how is that getting taxed, what are you getting to keep. And at the end of the day, Ben talks about that, what do you get to keep, and that’s the bottom line that we’re going to talk about

All right so pen handy, paper handy, 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com, that’s how you can get a hold of us and start the process of taking a look at these numbers, what do they actually mean to you, how do they articulate, and what are some of the outcomes that we can start to look forward to. We’re going to take a quick break and we’ll be right back, you're listening to Money on Tap

[Music]

Seth: Folks it is so much fun for us to bring you Money on Tap. My name is Seth Krussman and I am one of the hosts here at Money on Tap. I am also a financial planner, that’s what Ben and I do and the fun part is we get to have this radio show, we talk about important things that we think you need to listen to and be aware of to help raise the bar as far as your financial literacy. That’s a big part of what we’re trying to do here. The other thing that we’re doing here as well, as financial planners we are welcoming you to come and call us and to join us at Brayshaw Financial Group. Experience what real wealth management looks like. Let’s take a look at all sides of the issue, get a three-dimensional perspective and put a plan around your next step. It’s so critical and so many people just leave this part out and then they find out later, oh if I only would have known. Hey don’t let that be your story. Give us a call at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. If you have $250, 000 of investable assets today our plan is free to you, we think it’s important for you to know the facts and have a playbook so you can have a successful retirement. Give us a call at 855-226-8551. Thanks for listening

Now back to Money on Tap with Ben and Seth

[Music]

Seth: Welcome back you're listening to Money on Tap you can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. And we have been talking about you know, taxes, those lovely little things

Ben: Love taxes, love taxes

Seth: How does it work out in your social security and how much tax is getting assessed from your social security or not, and what are some of the different ways that we can really affect and go into it just having, you know if we were to just pull a lever A, B, C over here, what can we do to really try to affect how much is getting taxed on this social security piece. I mentioned you know doing some early planning ahead of time and getting some of those Roth conversions in, or those traditional IRA dollars, pay the taxes that you need to as you convert those into a Roth, but those future distributions from your Roth don’t get counted towards your social security taxes, right

Ben: Yeah, I know I was going to say Seth as you're speaking about that, I think the one thing that’s really like a kick in the pants here is that 13 states actually impose taxes on social security too. There's a lot of things going on around social security that people don’t know, and I think, and this might be the conspiracy side of me and so forth but I mean, knowing that we don’t have the money to pay social security for the next hundred years without hundreds of trillions of dollars of debt, I'm assuming that this strategy work is going to become more and more imperative for you, I mean I can see them either lowering these numbers or if you're income’s a certain level, zero, I mean they're going to cut these numbers. They're going to impact social security more and more to reduce that, you know those future liabilities, it’s just going to happen. I don’t know when, I don’t know where, I don’t know how. Are states going to do this after the pandemic, I'm sure more states are going to sign up for this stuff, that’s where we become vital. I mean you can run around trying to look for somebody who is going to be cheap and this, that, and the other thing, but you know sometimes when you just buy cheap you get cheap. And this kind of planning when you're maximizing the dollars, it does take time, it does take knowledge, it does take effort, and you're not going to get that from and 800 number. Well we have an 800 number but you know my point, so I mean that’s an issue, that’s an issue that you have to really deal with. This is serious stuff and honestly when you come into our office, we’re going to ask you to bring your tax return, we’re going to ask you for a copy of that at some point in time

Seth: its kind of one of those, its always kind of an interesting conversation too because some people are like, oh why would you want to know that?

Ben: What does that have to do with my investing? Exactly, it’s ridiculous. If someone is not asking you for your tax form you shouldn’t be doing business with them

Seth: Right

Ben: That’s straight up if you are sitting down with a financial person right now today and they have not looked at your tax return you need to run and you need to run quickly, because they have no understanding of how this is going to truly impact you and they clearly don’t have enough knowledge because you can’t, I mean I have met people where if I hadn’t looked at their tax return I didn’t know they had a side business even thought they, oh well I just work at such and such job, there's so much information that is detailed if someone understands your financial position, if they look at your tax return they can tell you more about it than any financial investment statement out there in the world. The investment is the last decision, the taxes are what help define those decisions and until people embrace that you are not going to really have a good investment strategy for yourself and that is the bottom line

Seth: Yeah. I love it, I love it. I think we’re getting close to a wrap here and the question is first of all, we get this right out of the gate we probably just haven’t even said it enough is, does your social security income count as income, and the answer is yes, in most cases it does. But you can really minimize the amount you owe by making some of these choices right up front and there's some stuff that we’ve done the work on the backside of this where we’ve paid the taxes in year A to really minimize the outcome over several years down the road where the accumulation of what it is that we’re talking about is the benefit here and really lowering that tax ability. You just don’t know unless you bring the paperwork, bring it in, bring the taxes in, sit down, take a look, and try to understand what are your options, chocolate, vanilla, strawberry folks, I mean we’re talking about some stuff that probably is just like at this point in time, you're just like, geez man I don’t even care I'm done, here take it, whatever. But at the end of the day we really want to build options here for you because that’s important and you having some understanding just of how this is going to work and making those decisions for yourself

Ben: Yeah, well said

Seth: Yeah, you want to go back and talk about some of that Money in the News because I really feel like I'm just kind of –

Ben: I’m still hyped. I'm still hyped on that yeah. You couldn’t hear it in my voice today. Anyways

Seth: It’s been a lot of fun and I can’t wait until the next time. You’ve been listening to Money on Tap you can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. You can also find us at Facebook, we’re at /3Dinvesting. We are also on Twitter at @bfg_llc and as always you can also find us at yourmoneyontap.com. Thanks for listening, thanks for liking our podcast. You guys, make it a great week we can’t wait to talk to you

MOT 169 What Is Your Money Personality?

Welcome to “Money on Tap”

“Money on Tap”, your personal finance headquarters, where we bring out the professionals experienced in some fun, in what we call three-dimensional investing – utilizing insurance, brokerage, and fee-based planning. That’s what we do on this show, we look at all sides of the issues, we bring a fully independent planning perspective to the table.

Seth: Welcome back you’re listening to Money on Tap. You can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. My name is Seth Krussman and I am joined here once again with Ben Brayshaw, how you doing today Ben?

Ben: Good Seth, how are you?

Seth: I’m doing fantastic, I’m bringing back fantastic by the way, its been a while since I've thrown that one out there. Speaking of fantastic, Dan Michelon how are you doing today?

Dan: Very good, very excited

Seth: Wonderful

Ben: It’s oozing out of his mic

Seth: Dan is a partner with Brayshaw Financial Group and it’s always a pleasure to have you on the show with us and can’t wait for what nuggets you are going to share with our audience today

Dan: Hoping to find some good ones. Speaking of that I think we got a story to share about a found nugget. That’s going to be exciting

Seth: Ok, I think there's going to be some play on words throughout this episode today folks. Speaking of episodes we have a show for you today, we do. And we can’t wait to get down to some of the personality types. There are several different kinds of personalities when it comes to working in finance. And you might be a –

Ben: We’ve met all of them

Seth: You might be all of them depending on what day it is. But understanding who you are and how you relate with money is what we’re going to be talking about today. Trying to shed a little bit of light on some of these places that we just haven’t looked lately. But, yeah it’s going to be a great show

Ben: I got to tell you Seth that we have met some wonderful people. We’re met some people who have different appetites around money, that’s been interesting too. But money is a super personal, I guess that’s all you need to say, it’s super personal to everyone and it means something and that drives a lot of our underlying kind of God given traits about who we are

Dan: It’s emotional; everyone gets emotional about their money

Ben: Especially with the markets going down

Seth: And there’s also the fact that its one of those things that we all share a relationship with at some point in time. I don’t know that I'm yet to meet the person that doesn’t have a relationship with money of some form. It’s not relationship counseling here today on Money on Tap. We’re going to be talking about you and your relationship with money. But before we get going too far down the road with that it is time for Money in the News

[Music]

Ben: Well first up today we have, Disney adds fewer streaming subscribers than hoped; Revenue falls short. Now this is out of The Wall Street Journal written by Erich Schwartzel and Allison Prang. Now this is really interesting, so Disney comes out of their quarter and they were expected to have 109 million subscribers and they only ended up with 103.6, which is you know, not a huge add, I mean its still, they were the fastest breakout. The article goes into saying how they broke out the subscriber base faster than I think even Netflix and so forth. But they're seeing this significant subsiding that’s concerning the stock, which has it down basically what 20 plus percent since its hire maybe even a bigger drop than that. And people are saying this may not be, now coming out of Covid and the lockdowns easing and all the different things that are happening there, that they’re really, I guess if you lock everyone in the basement subscriptions are going to go up, you know we’re letting people out so you know now they’re going to go down. It’s just interesting to see how that’s affecting the market a little bit on this stock that’s for sure

Dan: Hopefully I think that less viewership online means more tickets sold at the gate I think that’s hopefully a good outcome for them

Ben: Do you have Disney Plus?

Dan: I do

Ben: Seth do you have it?

Seth: Yeah, I do

Ben: Ok so we’re three for three. And they just raised it by a buck a month did you see that?

Dan: I did

Ben: Yeah. Did you think twice about it?

Dan: No

Seth: No

Ben: That’s 103.9 million, 103.6 million dollars more per month that they're getting automatically just by nicking that think up a little bit I mean

Dan: They’ll always have the control to do that. I mean it’s still only roughly half the cost of Netflix

Ben: Yeah, I mean they got a whole other 700 million a month they could raise this thing at the way that I look at it

Dan: If you’ve got young kids it’s a critical service. Don’t know what you’re doing without

Seth: I like one of the things that’s so unique about Disney is just they, I mean Dan you mentioned ticket prices at the door, you know we didn’t even tap their cruise lines, there's just so many faucets of Disney and to me it’s a legacy buy. You're either a Disney family or you're not and we all are and I don’t know you just don’t even bat an eye at it, its like why wouldn’t I have Disney? It’s available. And you know they’ve done a great job during lockdown of still creating that content that nobody else out there really has. And its fresh and it gave us something new and I didn’t spend the $30 for it I waited until it became the free option myself but I'm sure they drove a hack of a lot of money in the door doing that

Dan: The one thing that they have is the advantage that you know really can’t be matched is the content. I mean all of the classic stories that we all grew up with or never even heard of, they own it and no one else can have it and they're going to pull it off of every other platform and you know its theirs to use however they see fit and they sequent and time out the releases

Seth: Yeah so you're not a Marvel fan so you’ve got Pixar right? There's so much to choose from that content, there's Star Wars

Dan: And they haven’t even really tapped the ESPN part so the whole sports viewership is an opportunity for them as well

Ben: I think they are going to lock that down too. I think they are going to lock all these pieces down and you're only going to get it through Disney and its going to be 50 bucks a month

Dan: Yeah, I can easily see it

Ben: Yeah, I could

Seth: So what is that stock market telling us about corporate tax hikes? If you haven’t been watching what’s been trending out of the White House, well that’s one of those things that’s coming down the pipe here. Biden’s going to go ahead and increase some of these corporate tax hikes currently they are saying 21% to 28% and its not something that has happened with a ton of frequency but we do have a little bit of history that we can go back and try to figure out what’s happening, that’s what this article is about from Sam Ro Yahoo Finance and its interesting

Ben: We went back and forth on this article its kind of interesting because I don’t know if I, I mean we’ve watched the industry we know people could manipulate how you interpret numbers, how the market looks around numbers, if you use this, you could almost find any story to tell when you're looking at returns and history and so forth, so I would probably start off with saying hey Sam Ro, I’d like to see all the data myself. But that being said he goes into the fact that during the historical standards you know each year its like – did I understand you correctly that he was saying that the stock market rises basically 10.3% during, its 10.3% during years when the tax rate was 50% or higher and only 10% in which it was below 35%, so he's saying that when the tax rate was over 50% we had a 0.3% higher gain historically, now Biden wants to raise the corporate tax rate from the 21% to the 28%, which is basically bringing it back to where it was when Trump was in office, that’s right?

Dan: It’s even so less than the Obama administration had

Ben: Yeah it was like 32

Dan: It was 34 I think, cut the difference

Ben: Yeah, so he’s taking it back to where it was and honestly I don’t think that that’s going to impact that market as significantly as the concerns and woes of inflation and so forth. I do think that

Dan: It is one of the things he's been talking about since the campaign so I think a lot of that effect has probably been priced in

Ben: I think so. I think on some level it is. I think the initial passing of it we’ll see a shock wave of it. But I think people realize that we’re in for higher taxes, I mean he said we’re going to raise 4 trillion dollars in taxes over what was it four or six years or something. Some crazy number, I just don’t understand how that’s going to happen but this is one way you start getting there, so, its pretty interesting reading this. Now during the five, I'm quoting this here, during the five prior corporate tax rate increases in 1950, 1951, ’52, ’68, ’93, the SMP 500 index posted an average calendar year gain of 12.9% with a positive price return each instance. This gain was well above the 4.6 average returns registered during the nine annual periods where the tax rate was reduced and also higher than 9% return for all calendar years going back to 1945. It’s interesting

Dan: Yeah, I think there's a lot of industries that, you know quite frankly as we’re already experiencing increased inflation, maybe this I another one of those costs that their able to pass through to the consumer

Ben: They will

Dan: They sure will

Ben: They sure will. Next up on our list, now this is interesting, I’m going to let Dan take this because I think this is his golden nugget here

Dan: It is and from the great state of Massachusetts as well, so always a cause of celebration from me

Ben: That’s not the adjective I would have used but go ahead

Dan: So we found an interesting story here about a treasure hunter who had heard of a kind of family war about some lost money within a home and this guy was able to, I guess he’s made a little bit of a career out of this but, he was able to work his way up into the attic and within just under an hour I believe it was he's been able to find this long lost cash and what it was, was you now heck of a day, great find, he found 46, 000 dollars hidden beneath the floor in an attic. And based upon some of the content in the box there they're guessing that it was probably hidden there in 1958, which at that point in time that total, that 46, 000 dollars in cash would have been worth in today’s dollars about 421, 000 dollars, so that’s a heck of a rainy day fund to bury in the floorboards

Ben: Well I was just, and I was just joking around when we were talking about the article before and I was like, that’s probably like a half a million bucks in todays dollars and when we got to the end of the article it was 421, 000 dollars equivalent on the inflationary curve, which is you know just I mean, so you think about it when someone put 46, 000 dollars in their attic they were putting almost half a million dollars in their world in their attic

Dan: It was worth more than the house I'm sure

Ben: Oh yeah, oh easily

Dan: Oh gosh, yeah

Ben: You know I also thought that this was interesting too that this guy Keith, I mean the whole family is it Wiley? I guess I would pronounce it Wiley or Willy, I don’t know one of the other, but the family had been looking for this money for decades and they told him a couple of little things like we think it’s in the attic, I mean if it was in the attic man I would have had someone remove the roof

Dan: Oh yeah

Seth: Well at the end of this one of the things they don’t even get into is what was the cost of trying to recover this money because they did have several people come in and attempt to you know remove floorboards and do all sorts of modifications to the house trying to find this but –

Ben: I mean does he get half or, for his one hour?

Seth: Yeah they don’t really talk about what his finder’s fee was for that but you know one of the things that’s interesting here is that he believes that there is a lot more hidden treasure out there folks, so you can take a look at this and if you know maybe got a story in your family or a house that you bought you know that somebody said there's a cash box somewhere it might be worth your time to get in touch with him and see if you can get it found

Ben: You know it’s interesting I remember when my parents were redoing our barn up in New Hampshire, they had there was some integrity issues with the beams and so forth so they brought in a bunch of guys and they found a box of like, there was some bills in it and some old collectibles and stuff like that, like baseball cards and stuff, but it was probably worth, I think it was worth like 5 or 10, 000 dollars worth of stuff in this box that was in this barn behind these boards that you know it was probably some kid, it was his baseball card collection and a few dollars and you know maybe a couple coins that were all silver and just different stuff like that but it was interesting was valued at between 5 and 10, 000 dollars, and the guys working on the barn I mean they came running out they were so excited to have found like treasure, you know, the honestly was like phenomenal, unless there was 100, 000 in there and they just

[Laughter]

Dan: Here’s your baseball card kid

[Laughter]

Ben: It was really amazing, I don’t remember all the contents of it but I would agree with this guy there is, he has a tag, “you lost something, I find it” Dan can you say that with a Massachusetts accent for us? Just kidding

Dan: I notice his fee isn’t in the tagline though

Ben: Yeah that’s characteristic

Dan: “You lost it, I find it, you get half”

Seth: Well that’s going to do it for us, we’re going to wrap up Money in the News but we’re going to be right back after this break and when we come back we’re going to be talking about personality types. There are different kinds of personality types when it comes to working in or spending or saving money and all those things. Some of them are great; some of them have some drawbacks, and some of them are, you know lots of people are hybrids of these personality types. You're listening to Money on Tap; you can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. Take a quick break we’ll be right back

Ben: If you're listening today and your questions are outside the box of estate planning or financial planning or any number of the pieces that we kind of traditionally talk about, don’t forget that Brayshaw Financial offers auto, home, and business insurance, and we have an entire department that handles all of that for you. Give us a call at 855-226-8551, I’d be happy to take care of those needs for you, or email us at info@yourmoneyontap.com

Now back to Money on Tap with Ben and Seth

[Music]

Seth: Welcome back, you're listening to Money on Tap, you can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. We are talking about personality types. There are several personality types when it comes to working with money and it’s not all bad but it’s one of those things that we find really interesting when kind of working in behavioral finance and trying to understand why do people do with their money, what they do with their money

Ben: Well you know Seth, you say that and just what comes to mind is you know I think about the fact that the behavioral piece of this is something that we have to help people through, like because whether you're a saver or a spender or a worrier or all the different, you know, we have to work with that person because we have to get them to a point where they can get to a healthy point and that you know, and sorry what you were saying with behavioral finance is a great point

Seth: Yeah, so what kind of a personality are you would be, I guess what Ben’s talking about there, and trying to apply that and understand it in our personal journey with finance. We all have a relationship with money and we’re going to have some of these traits that are going to be more prevalent than others

Ben: Yeah that’s for sure and I think, I think the thing that is the most interesting when we meet with clients is the combination of the personality traits when someone comes in, right? You have a husband and a wife and one person thinks one way about money and one person thinks almost completely opposite, its either almost agnostic or completely like, oh he takes too much risk, or you know she doesn’t let me do what I need to do, and you know like well I do all the work I don’t handle any of it, oh they don’t even want to come in and they don’t even talk, they don’t like even thinking about money, its not their thing. I mean I can name a thousand different phrases out there that represent any one of a zillion, I mean we have eight personality types today to talk about and I think you know if you're listening to this show you say, well I kind of know if I'm this or I'm that, but I think the benefit you're going to get out of this is to understand when to combat the natural inclination of the personality type your kind of born with or you’ve learned or you’ve acquired to get yourself to a better balance. I mean we all have inclinations to do one thing or another and finding that median is really important, so, because when you approach money and you approach financial decisions and so forth, it’s like Dan said it’s an emotional decision, everything is emotional around this so if you can understand all the personality types and start challenging yourself to become balanced and make sure that you're not drifting into one verses the other too much

Dan: I think it’s probably most important, and we see it everyday with clients is, you know for you out there as an investor to understand what your personality type is. When the topic of money and investing comes up, you know what’s that initial gut reaction like and just so, the importance and understanding of that is so you don’t create roadblocks for yourself, you're not creating blind spots, that you're able to keep an open mind to the conversation ahead of you, understanding that when certain topics and thoughts come up that you're going to have a natural reaction to it, you know you don’t want to have those things stand in the way of making a right decision and create the best opportunity for yourself down the road. So that little bit of self-awareness and comprehension of what’s just natural for you to react in terms of making big, kind of very important longer term decisions, you know trust the guidance that you get from your advisors is what I guess the bigger point, you know make sure that your own personal inclinations don’t prevent you from hearing what’s being said

Seth: Well said Dan. Before we get too far down the road you can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. And if you are listening to us on the radio today we are a podcast as well so if you miss something and you want to go back and grab that information find us at Money on Tap on any one of the podcast venues and we appreciate you listening. And also we love the call-ins and the activity that you guys are creating out there around the content that we’re trying o deliver here today. So we’ve got, first and foremost, probably one of our favorites to see, is a saver. And how do you know that you're a saver? Well you might put away money endlessly, sometimes without any kind of a real goal in mind, it’s just kind of a compulsion, you have to save. You might also be you know saving money just because it’s what makes you feel secure in life, that’s usually one of the goals or one of the things that’s kind of underlining motivation. If you're a big money saver you're probably also very frugal, you might find that friends will come and ask you for advice on what phone company is cheapest or where the best deal in town you know for a burger this week is

Ben: Yeah, you know Seth I think as we go through the concept of saver, right, it sounds great, like if you're listening to this show and you're saying to yourself, I'm a saver, I'm the responsible party, I'm the person who’s got it under control and I'm putting money away, it’s like that sounds really good but you know as I think about savers, yeah you know we love being savers, but if you're a compulsive saver you can become really overly too cautious to the point where you actually cost yourself money where you're no longer saving. And one of the things we’ve talked about on this show a number of times is the concept of inflation, like this inflationary environment that we’re facing we’re talking about if all you're doing is saving money under the mattress, like we talked about the 46, 000 dollars that that guy found in the attic in Massachusetts, it’s still only worth 46, 000 dollars

Dan: Exactly right. It’s less now, I mean compared to what it was then, it was like half a million

Ben: Yeah. It was almost a half a million and today its worth 46, 000. That person lost money but they were a saver, you know and so when you think about that, that person never pulled the money, somebody who out the money up there half a million, if I put half a million dollars in my attic and I went through the Depression and everything else and at some point in time I never pulled it out I became an unhealthy saver. And I think people have to understand there's both unhealthy and healthy in each one of these categories that we’re going to probably talk about. Now maybe not everyone will have a healthy or unhealthy but people say you know, well I'm a saver and that just well, in a cultural environment that just sounds good like, oh you must be responsible, but that’s not necessarily the case and in this example, it’s just actually like literally the perfect Money in the News article out there, its to say hey saving isn’t all its cracked up to be

Dan: You know I grew up in, like probably all of us, my grandparents survived and went through the Depression, my parents were severely impacted in their growing up by that whole mentality and kind of that experience from the generation before, so saving was critical. I mean my family very much was into, you know if you have an extra dollar you out it in the bank and it was just automatic it was just what was expected and that’s the advice that they’ve gotten through the generations. But later in life you know when I was kind of beginning my career in finance I got this other tidbit that I had heard some place, and I can’t even exactly place it but it was profound and I still live and believe it today, it’s that you can’t save your way to wealth. You can’t do it; you cannot possibly save enough you have to invest

Ben: That’s a great line. You can’t save your way to wealth

Dan: Can’t do it

Seth: Yeah there are several drawbacks to being you know unbalanced in this relationship, you know you might be missing out on hobbies and you might be passing up on time with your family, taking a vacation even, you know if that’s the motivation behind why you're not doing something there's an imbalance there and there I definitely a sacrifice and

Dan: Whoever buried that 46, 000, you know they passed up a chance to take a vacation or buy that car or do whatever it was and they died before they told anyone where the money was

Ben: Yeah

Seth: Number two, well folks not the saver, the spender. You're a spender you probably already know this and you’ve had other people try to talk you out of making some of these decisions, but you know what are the indications that that’s you? Your buying just stuff you don’t need frankly, you’ve got a tendency to probably treat people to a special something just for no particular reason, you know you might be kind of like an emotional buyer as well like if your, you know kind of, spending creates a satiating type of a feeling to alleviate stress for a lot of the more compulsive spenders that we find

Dan: Yeah I think I just identified my first hybrid too. My wife is a bargain shopper for stuff she does not need

Ben: And she's not a subscriber to our podcast

Dan: That’s why I can get away with it

Ben: I think that’s an interesting piece about that right, so there's the spender, we all know a spender and when we use the word spender there's that negative connotation too. Are there good spenders, I mean you have to know when to spend and when not to spend, right? There's a balance of when to save, when not save, and when to spend and when to invest, but if you don’t have kind of guardrails inside each of these things where you're saving appropriately, you're spending appropriately, any one of these, any one of these personality traits can really get out of whack and that’s one of the things that I think is a complicated issue for most of our listeners. I mean there's not a person, any of us, I mean I know both of you well, I've known both of you for well 20, 25 years, and we all know each others pitfalls, I mean well, I mean I know your pitfalls, but we both, we all have that, where we save, where we spend, what our personalities are, and honestly it’s the differences of us as partners and all of us, and how we look at where we spend our money. I mean I love, I mean Dan is much more conservative financially than I am, like that’s just our nature like it doesn’t mean that its good or bad but its interesting because our balance in that conversation is really interesting as well and Seth’s almost a little bit more out there, he's very in tune with where to spend money for a lot of the pieces that we need and so sometimes I look at it and say to myself, I might be middle of the road between the two of you but then sometimes I know I'm not. But its like I can really become I can jump into the spending thing very easily. Dan knows that

Dan: Yes, yes he can

Ben: Dan’s ready to go recycle stuff, so, how can we use this again. But there is a balance and we all know that because we engage that, we engage that in the industry and I think that’s something that you know when you have, when God pairs you with somebody and you talk about your wife, I mean you guys are probably perfectly paired you know between the spending and not spending, so that’s an interesting piece

Dan: Separate checking accounts then, so

[Laughter]

Seth: You know something else to that, I know this comes up for people as well, is hiding purchases. You know if, that’s one of those things that’s happened then probably your gut check there is like, oops, I'm doing it again. So what are the things that we could do to again bring that balance back into the relationship here with money and a lot of the times it’s just a simple budget, and again I would say simple is the key word here because if its not something that allows you to just take a look at what’s the asset test here, really that’s what we’re looking for, to know that we’re staying in line with what we’ve communicated with our partner or ourselves that we’re going to try to do

Dan: Another one of those lessons I learned early is you know this came from my father, he always said pay yourself first. So when you talk about the notion of a budget, the driving principle there was whatever it is that you truly need or want to save for your future, whether its inside an IRA, 401k, or just an after tax investment account, if it has a specific purpose, if it’s a need that you believe in that is long term important to your family, that’s the first item in the budget. So you don’t save what's left, you save first and you spend what's left

Ben: Yeah and that’s the same premise as you know when I was taught about, you know even the concept of tiding, I was always told you know you tide your first, you know God wants your first fruits, that’s what it talks about that in the bible and I think about that and I was challenged by an older gentleman who I respect highly and he said to me, two things, he goes you know when someone looks back at my checkbook they’ll know my walk and my faith from the first check I wrote to the second I payed, and I thought wow what a challenge that someone can see that you wrote your first fruits, because its not the way it was where you know we had a farm and we’re sacrificing lambs and you know we don’t have alters here but what are our first fruits, I just thought that that was an interesting component to the same concept of what you're saying is you know what are you doing first with your money, that’s a really good challenging point for anybody listening, whether you're saving, tiding, however that is, you're managing your assets. What you do with your first dollars is going to define what your priority is in life. That’s really a big deal and I was challenged by that many many years ago, I'm not perfect at it I don’t do it every time but I will tell you it is a practice I try to live by, which is, anyways that’s what it is

Seth: So one other kind of a tip or tick here that we use with clients is, if they're the spender, and this is right in line with I think you're saying Ben –

Ben: Burn their checkbook, shed their credit cards the second they walk in, I'm just kidding

Seth: Well the budget has kind of like that, put everybody on a diet feel to it, you know and if you're not liking what you're doing you're probably not going to continue to do it. It’s just the way that people are. So if you can create a mindset around some saving activities or some spending activity, that’s the transformation for a lot of people that are big spenders, is allowing themselves to see that they're spending money and how they're spending the money and still kind of get that connection for them, that payoff is what they're looking for and so it doesn’t feel like they're just losing money or they're just giving it away

Ben: You know that’s an interesting point, I used to say to people all the time that the easiest way to save money was to stop eating out at restaurants that have waiters or waitresses because that’s 10, or 15, or 20%, however you tip, right, you know maybe you don’t tip I don’t know, but if you tip, like if you go to a place where they’re serving you, you know if you stop doing that and just go to a five guys or you know, I mean you can have as much fun with your family at some of the more casual places than a more official dining place, and then if you're going to get coffee verses a big dinner out, now with Covid that’s changed a lot, right, but that’s still something that you know I challenged my wife and my family with it, we intentionally look for places like, my kids know this too, where like, alright no Dad that’s sit down we’re going to have to pay a tip on that, and it’s not to be cheap it’s just to be responsible, right. So I can choose to pay the tip but I go to places where it’s not a requirement. Now I’ll tip anywhere I have to tip but you know that’s something to watch for, it’s a simple way as we open back up and maybe you're used to not eating out and going to that more expensive restaurant with an expensive waiter, I mean that’s a way you can start curbing because we’ve already changed our habits about how we live our everyday life, start when you exit to create new habits, create a new path to go

Seth: Folks you're listening to Money on Tap you can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. We’re going to take a quick break and we’ll be right back

Folks it is so much fun for us to bring you Money on Tap. My name is Seth Krussman and I am one of the hosts here at Money on Tap. I am also a financial planner, that’s what Ben and I do and the fun part is we get to have this radio show, we talk about important things that we think you need to listen to and be aware of to help raise the bar as far as your financial literacy. That’s a big part of what we’re trying to do here. The other thing that we’re doing here is well, as financial planners we are welcoming you to come and call us and to join us at Brayshaw Financial Group. Experience what real wealth management looks like. Let’s take a look at all sides of the issue, get a three-dimensional perspective and put a plan around your next step. It’s so critical and so many people just leave this part out and then they find out later, oh if I only would have known. Hey don’t let that be your story. Give us a call at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. If you have $250, 000 of investable assets today our plan is free to you, we think it’s important for you to know the facts and have a playbook so you can have a successful retirement. Give us a call at 855-226-8551. Thanks for listening

Now back to Money on Tap with Ben and Seth

[Music]

Seth: Welcome back, you're listening to Money on Tap. You can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. And we’re talking about personality types and the different kinds of personality types that people revolve around when they're connected with money, have a relationship with money. We’ve got the saver, we’ve got the spender, and we also have several others we’re going to try and cover before the end of the show here so we might have to start pushing the needle a little bit Ben, and again Dan is here with us today, Dan Michelon partner with Brayshaw Financial. It’s good to have you on the show again and adding your wisdom and your experience here with us today

Dan: Let’s not go too far Seth, but thanks Dan for just trying to bring it up a notch

Seth: So you're like, oh I’m not a saver, I'm not a compulsive spender, maybe you are a moneymaker, right, maybe this is your obsession that you think making more money is the secret to happiness, you spend a ton of your energy just trying to make as much money as possible and you really get a lot of pleasure out the activity f getting approval and recognition from you know people about your financial success

Ben: You know this is a big issue in our world because we live in a materialistic world, it’s something that you know, and we’re in the business of making money for people so we have that right, I mean there's that, I hate this phrase but, people invest out of need or greed. I mean they say that’s the core elements of everyone’s investment decisions so trying to balance that. If listening to that turns you off a little bit I'm sorry but it’s just a phrase that’s used in the industry. These are the concerns and you have to figure out which one they're looking for. The person who’s looking to, that compulsive, that moneymaker guy is the one who doesn’t accept simple success. We talk about trying to make success, we talked about people, hey listen, we try to do that 7 to 10% return over a five-year period, that’s kind of our goal conversation. Have we beaten that? Yes. Have we had years we were slower than that? Yes. I mean all those things exist, but the thing is when you're not, when you're, like last year we had a very very good year and when that’s not good enough, that’s when I get very concerned about the client. I try to have to explain to them, hey listen these are your expectations, this is where your expectations should be, when we beat that don’t create a new expectation that we never defined as the case. You know and so the compulsive moneymaker, that person is the one who will leave us when the return is not as good as this great year. Like the person who says, well they must have lost their steam. We never promised to do the returns we did last year, I know that, you know so going through that concept, that’s a very dangerous place to be

Dan: Yeah and to that catchphrase there that people invest out of need or greed, what I see to be the case is a lot of people especially when your meeting with investors starting off young or at least young in their financial life, you know they save and we invest and we plan on the basis of need until the need is met. But generally peaking once you’ve gotten there and you think it’s a victory from a planning perspective and is it, but you don’t want to stop there, right, so they want to continue to grow and to shepherd that wealth and continue to add assets so their perspective over time it might look like or whatever the stated goal was, can improve. They have the opportunity to kind of broaden their horizons and to consider the possibility of doing more. Now is that greed? Well I mean you're taking money and your hoping to grow it, but what's the money for I mean there's lots of things we do as planners for clients that are you know tremendously generous and do a lot of gifting and you find you know different people and organizations and groups that you could find a way to support with that additional wealth

Ben: Absolutely. Next up we have the person who is indifferent to money. We get a lot of that. I mean I usually get a lot of that, Dan I don’t know when you sit down with clients in the conference room its, oh my wife didn’t come she doesn’t really do any of this stuff, you know this isn’t what they handle. I get that a lot, it tends to be more of a, you know financials tend to be more male dominated in households I would say on average. Though my mom was the financial, you know crucial piece, she was brilliant financially and when my mom passed away my dad hadn’t written a check in over 40 years of their marriage, and I was like shocked by that. So that tells you, my dad actually got an allowance to be honest. But there are relationships like that and to be indifferent is really, I think, probably one of the worst positions to be in. I really do because being indifferent means you have no impact on the benefit of the gifts you have because if you don’t choose a side, the decisions already been made, one-way or another. Someone else is already making that decision. And I encourage, if a spouse says I don’t want anything to do with it, I don’t do business with them. Like I say listen, you don’t have to be here for every ounce of everything, but you need to understand what we’re doing. There's no excuse for exiting the business. Even with discretionary accounts where we manage assets at full consent and etc, etc, I mean we don’t really have a problem with doing that as long as we know that the client understands and everyone’s aware of what the overall picture is, the understanding of the you know, we’re not looking for someone to handhold ourselves through the trading process, but we do want people engaged and that’s healthy. It’s unhealthy to be completely unengaged

Dan: You have a responsibility to your family to at least maintain awareness, at the very least

Ben: Yeah, and if you're a husband or wife that don’t want anything to do with it that’s ok. I wouldn’t condemn you for it but I would say that you have to be willing to engage. You know I mean you don’t have to do, because the thing is, is each one of you brings something to the table. Each partner is, I mean I look at the three of us, you know we each bring something to the table and over the years we’ve had our you know disagreements, or you know bet this way or that way to make things happen, usually I win, but I mean the thing is, is like, but honestly as I've gotten older I've realized the value God has given me by having you guys as partners because honestly its challenged me to really be more astute and aware of things that I'm not, because I don’t have all the answers. We all think we do right, I mean we all think oh we’re doing it the right way, we live in that naiveness but I think as we get older we become more aware of the gifts that are around us on a daily basis. I mean there's a zillion things, I look at Dan and say, man I'm so glad I didn’t do that but I don’t want to tell him

[Laughter]

Seth: So we haven’t hit it out of the park for you yet well maybe you're a little bit of both of these things. Maybe you are a saver but then occasionally you turn around and you're like, well where did it all go, because you're also a splurger at the same time. And you know this can be a little phonetic for people on the outside just trying to observe the pendulum swinging from one side to the other. But this is certainly one of those personality types that I think Ben might identity a little bit more with

Ben: I would, I would definitely identify with the saver-splurger. I would, I would definitely do that. I'm not, I mean I like nice things but I don’t spend money where I don’t, like if it doesn’t mean anything to me I'm not going to spend the money there, like if its not – I know people that are splurgers and they just, whatever they doing they're spending, but like for me, like my wife would say, man sometimes he's really cheap and then sometimes she’ll say, boy he’ll really just spend money on anything. But I have intent and that’s how I define it. I would definitely do that; I would probably say it’s more on the healthy side of trade, but yes

Dan: Yeah this is an ongoing learning experience in my household too, my stepson is in band and he's very much into it and we’re happy for him he's done a great job, but he’s been working for a couple for summers and we’ve been helping him, give him a little bit of an allowance for work around the house and he’d saved up in a checking account that we opened for him and I was very proud he's up to 900 dollars, I couldn’t believe it, and in one fell swoop, one trip to the music store, comes home with zero dollars and a new trumpet. And I was absolutely shocked that that was the decision he made because we’ve been trying to kind of impart this lesson on him, you know, and early on we’d split the allowance he could have half in cash, half went to the account and you know try to build some disciplines and I really thought we had him there and like I said one trip and gone

Ben: You know Dan I could see it in your eyes right now, I could see, hey you're going to need that trumpet when you're living on the street because that’s the only way you're going to make money

Dan: I hope it came with a hat to collect nickels

Seth: That’s maybe a good way to look at it, he's seeing this as a real investment and something that maybe he can earn income out of but I don’t know might take a minute before that turns into something else. So what is some advice that you would like to give Dan to the you know the saver/splurger when maybe they’ve got a big purchase that’s coming up or they're thinking about that big purchase

Ben: I know exactly what Dan would say

Dan: Think again, don’t do it

Seth: He’d just be like no

Ben: You know but I think the thing is one of the problems a lot of people have is the saver-splurger relationship, right, I think Dan kind of alluded to that, I mean like my wife and I we probably have a saver-splurger relationship on some level, I mean, so, these relationships, I don’t meet many husband and wife saver-savers. But I do see saver-spenders all the time and I do see that kind of offshoot and then I do see people who are both saver-splurger kind of people that are paired together. And then the highest conflict relationship I see is probably what would bring us to the next one, which is the gambler. You know the gambler there's always like one gambler once in a while that they get connected with an ultra-saver and that is a very dangerous, I usually find that that’s where most of you know the rocky road in the financial world actually hits and they usually need a mediator to get through it. They usually need someone to say, hey listen you're both way out on left field, you know one person thinks buying stocks or bonds might be too too risky, like buying an ultra conservative maybe you're buying the US treasury and the person’s like that’s way too risky, you know, but the other person’s like well you know I got four stocks that just went public and they got like I don’t know the SPACs, you know or something and I want to put all our money into it. That’s a real problem and those people usually need some sort of regular balanced person in the middle, that’s usually where we play a big role, I would say for a lot of people to look at that and try to say, just because of how we personally respond, I mean I think about it Dan like, when we do investments, Dan and I are different financially and so is Seth, but when we do investments we usually are all very similar in our track like, we usually are, kind of interesting that way when you think about it. I hadn’t really thought about that before but we don’t really have any conflicts about the investment world, we have our investment committee, we go through it, right, we’re not, yeah ok well, we’re pretty nonchalant about it, so that’s interesting so I think because of that, because we have training, we have education, we have a background, we bring that kind of solidarity to that. Now how I live my own personal life and I spend my own dollars is potentially a different scenario, right

Dan: Yeah and I think that’s, getting back to your point there when we’re looking at the portfolios for our clients’ money and their wealth we are able to make decisions and agreement on that virtually all the time, like you said, and its because I think we’re focused in those moments on our clients’ goals, its got less to do with our personal preferences and maybe some of the decisions we might make with our own money, but when the focus is clear and the outcome is something that we’re all looking towards on behalf of our clients, it’s a little easier path to see

Ben: Well how many times do we go to tell a client, listen you should sell this stock or get rid of this ETF or whatever it is, and they're like, well it could keep going up, but we have such an unemotional connection to it that we’re like, you know I mean just the other day when we were talking about my stock portfolio I brought Dan in and was like, hey take a look at this thing I just need an unbiased opinion because I get, just like anybody else we have emotional connections to different assets or we believe certain things are going to happen, but Dan would be like no that one’s gone, this one’s in, you know. I mean he doesn’t care, but that’s important to have that person in your life, you know and that’s to just kind of work through those different pieces

Dan: For us it’s easy, I mean I can’t tell you how many times I've just fallen in love with a stock for all the wrong reasons and you know you hesitate to sell when its down and when its up you can’t see the forest for the trees when you should make that decision you know what, I've made enough. All right this is it, the goal’s been met, you know, I see it all the time on the financial shows and you know when they're picking on some analyst because he sold too soon. You know one of them has the catch sign it says, you never apologize for taking a game

Ben: Yeah I know I love, yeah I know

Dan: It’s so true

Ben: It is so true. I have a friend of mine who bought Chipotle at like 6 dollars or something like that I don’t know, and he sold half of it when it went to like 40 bucks, he's like, this is ridiculous, I mean you know, he sold the other half I think when it like hit I don’t know it was like 89 or 90 dollars, I think it was just shy of 100, I’ll have to ask him I'm actually going to see him later I'm going to ask him that because I’m just curious, Chipotle is like I don’t know 14 or 1500 dollars a share or something like that you know, he's still kicking himself, I'm like what do you care you went to something else that’s making money you know like move on. But it is funny we all have those stories. I remember I bought Sirius satellite radio accidently in the wrong account and whatever and had to reverse the trade, but I bought it for like I think it was like 6 cents. And then it went to like 8 cents and I was like forget it I lost my gain. So those are things

Seth: Next up we have the worrier, which sometimes might kind of coincide with the super-saver or the really frugal characters, but I think this might have a little bit to do with our Money in the News 50, 000 dollars that was stashed away in an attic, I think the equivalency was around 500, 000 dollars of todays money, if you're putting half a million dollars in your attic you might be worrying a little bit. There might be some concern there. But the worrier, for the worrier it doesn’t really matter how much money they have, they're just constantly worried that they’ll lose it and they're really, you know lack a lot of confidence in their abilities to achieve the financial freedom that they crave. And this obsessive behavior really limits the joy in life for most of our worriers, that’s one of the things that I find more often than not, is that they just, they just don’t have joy when it comes to being able to experience life and financial freedom

Dan: You know I think, and I can relate to this a little bit, my favorite place to see money is on a statement generally speaking I like to see it there, and I think a lot of worriers feel the same way. But I think some people are generally happier in their investing and saving lives when they picture the assets on the page and not as the numbers in a spreadsheet that they may be, but they have the vision of what they hope to achieve, whether its that retirement home, the boat and the car, the kids education, you know so they're taking the assets off of the page from the black and white and making it to them, the vision of a tangible goal, a tangible outcome that just means more to them than the dollars

Ben: Yeah the worrier, we get phone calls from the worrier, right. Worrier comes in, they're trying to overcome the worry, they do some investing, and then we get a lot of phone calls, like hey listen you know market, what's this, what's that, and that’s a complicated person to work with for us at least. And sometimes we can help pull people out of the worry hole I think, and sometimes we can’t and that’s a, that really can be a very dangerous place and that’s where you put your 46, 000 or half a million dollars in the attic and its, it just goes down. I think with inflation too, for our listeners you know with inflation kind of roaring at us, and it’ll be something that mathematically goes through I think the entire market I mean, if you're spending more on something and you're invested in the market, the market’s going to rise from that inflation it was just a, the whole revenue process, the whole way it works generally moves that way. But if you have cash sitting in the bank and you're concerned about crisis, upheaval, the US dollar, one world currency, if you're in any of that conversation, I think the US dollar, cash in your pocket is the absolute worst place to put it. I mean mathematically I can make an argument ten ways to Sunday about how you can put it in almost anything else and you’d be better off to deal with inflation or to address those items. I mean you could do inflationary US government assets, I mean you can do a lot of different pieces but anything’s going to be better than the bank unless your planning on spending this money on various things

Seth: You know last but not least, I think the extreme that we have is the hoarder, people will do that as really an attempt to be so cautious that it just consumes them and they can’t get out of that fear of loss. Most of the time a hoarder is not going not be somebody that is really giving, not going to do any loans, not going to be doing any lending, not going to be giving to any organizations, but kind of ruined by the fear of loss in their life

Folks we hope that you have enjoyed your time with us here at Money on Tap today. You could reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. You can also find us at Facebook, we’re at /3Dinvesting. We are also on Twitter at @bfg_llc and as always you can also find us at yourmoneyontap.com. It’s been a lot of fun, thank you Dan Michelon for exploring the different personality types around finances today. And if you are new to Money on Tap you're welcome to give us a call we love sitting down with listeners and just hearing about stories in their lives and sharing our experience and understanding around personal finance and financial planning with you too. Make it a great week, folks

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Money On Tap 167

Todays Money In The News quickly touched on the app from Robin Hood and commented on their style of trading and investing and compared it to gambling. Ben acknowledges the fact that the baby boomers and the Gen Z’ers have figured out how the system works and have manipulated in a way where they are making money and outsmarting the people who have many years’ experience in trading and investing.Hood’s style

Money On Tap had 2 new guests today which included Anthony Scola and Dan Mitchell who is part of the Brayshaw Financial group. Ben, Seth, Anthony and Dan talked about the one subject no one wants to talk about but that is extremely crucial in everyone’s lives - retirement. Adding their personal experience along with their advice and new strategies that have been developed, the guys emphasized the importance of having a good retirement plan set in motion along with the other more complicated details that come along with it.

Seth: Welcome to Money On Tap.

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Seth: Money On Tap - your personal finance headquarters where we bring out the professionals experience and some fun in what we call 3 dimensional investing - utilizing insurance brokerage and fee based planning. That's what we do on this show. We look at all sides of the issues. We bring a fully independent planning perspective to the table.

Seth: Welcome to Money On Tap - your personal finance headquarters. You can reach us at 855-226-8551. I have not said that for awhile, I want to bring it back the personal finance headquarters.

Ben: I know I like that it's been awhile since we've used that one Seth.

Seth: Yeah, but the rest will remain the same as far as like how you can connect with us today. You can reach us at 8552268551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. Folks, today we have got guests in store for you, we have a topic that's appropriate no matter who or where you are, and that is going to be on an aging America and what this means for you. We want to take a look at investing, how to invest with a massive surge in our population pushing through and what is that going to mean in terms of you know how to get ahead of the curve and how to understand you know how to approach an aging America, because for a lot of this it might be you, it might be your parents, but we're all affected someway somehow. So we're hoping to prep you in that and with us today we've got Dan Mitchell and Ben Brayshaw and new to the show, would you please introduce yourself because I can't do it any better than you can.

Anthony: Thanks a lot Seth. My name is Anthony Scola.

Seth: Wonderful, yeah Tony would you just tell us a little bit about yourself first and foremost. Like where do you come from because I've never met you before.

Ben: It's not a very nice way to introduce horrible.

Anthony: Just go back then and I have gone, gone away back actually Dan as well. I was an independent

Seth: Sorry bout that last part.

Anthony: Yeah that's OK. OK, it's good to have him in person and he's back again. But yeah, started back in the business and early 90s and when I moved to New Hampshire, Ben and I actually worked independent in the same area and did a lot of work together and Dan as well actually was one of my OSJ’s so kind and moved in a different direction throughout my career and spend some time with wirehouse and independent as I mentioned and then got into some bank work and ran some programs for some mutual banks institutions in the area before being enticed to join the Brayshaw group late last year. So yeah, glad to be part of the organization.

Seth: Well, that's not the story that Ben tells me as I've been getting a chance actually getting money.

Ben: Its much better than that.

Seth:  But it's really it. We're really fortunate to have you with us today, Anthony.

Ben: Yeah, no. I want to speak into that a little bit. Take the opportunity here on the radio. No, I'm really excited that Tony's joined us. It's been fantastic. I mean, Tony had been friends for close to where approaching 20 years. So that's it's great to be actually working together in the same office. And he's a great partner to have in every accord so you know, Dan and I, we’re just really happy to have you and Seth is too I think we're just.

Anthony: Appreciate that.  

Seth: I’m such a hard guy to like or like back, it's always been that way so don't worry about it. Yeah, so this is going to be a lot of fun. It's going to be a new voice for us today and I think it's a voice of reason and.

Ben: we need that here.

Seth: Keep us a little grounded. And Dan, you're no longer and a new person to the money On Tap family.

Dan: I'm like a seasoned veteran.

Seth: You are. I gosh. Alright you folks, we're gonna have some fun today as you can tell. But before we get going too far down the road, it is time for Money In The News.

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Seth: You guys, you guys at Robin Hood making trading like candy? Is that what it is? I mean I you're gonna go into some kind of a cartoon land and make training like a like a pop quiz. Jingle jangle thing over here for everybody.

Ben: I think the word Robin Hood is become an everyday dinner table conversation with about just every you know high schooler, you know college kid that I stumbled across meeting with my kids. I mean everyone's like Oh yeah, I got a Robin Hood account I'm trade in stock too. It's kind of an interesting scenario I mean, Bloomberg brings up this article here on April what is this, April 21st. This article I just talks about the entire evolution of Robin Hood this online trading app with Baton Vlad, I mean, I've seen Vlad on TV. I've seen him testify and I've watched all this craziness. But it's just kind of interesting what they've done to make, you know trading stocks, grab the gens Z’ers and get them totally lured in to becoming like, and honestly, I mean what they have done to the conversation about stocks and trading and we're hearing about Reddit and all this craziness with all these GameStop and AMC and all the nuts kind of things that are happening, they have they have contributed to that pretty heavily inside the idea that I mean almost trading is gambling. Now I would agree that it is in some capacity, but I think there's a difference between trading and investing, and the line is whether or not you believe in something you're looking to hold it, you want to be an owner of a company, and gambling is where you think you're going to throw your money in and make a quick buck and you really have no basis for why you own the company or what the reason for it is. And that's super dangerous. Super dangerous.

Seth: Yeah, I completely agree. I think it is fascinating. I think there's part of this that really addresses a need for us as a society as whole as financial education is a huge thing that we're needing. There's a gap here. There's people we need more people investing and we talk about this so often. Hey, if you were just getting out of high school, could you take $50 a month and start to put it over into something as simple as an index fund if we if that's the most simple of possible approach to have since you so much time. What they’ve done here with Robin Hood which is something to really applaud I would say which is is the behavioral informed design and they sum it up in a PowerPoint friendly four step model that shows how the smartest designers were turning products into habits. And that's what they've done with the Robin Hood application is it is created this easy path. It's just flatten it and leveled the playing field for so many people out there to be able to start investing. So bravo! At the same time, investors this is not buying. This is what do you call it? It's not cotton candy at the at the carnival folks. This is real deal.

Ben: Yeah, it's it's. I mean they have. I mean, basically it's like a scratch ticket I think was was used as an example in the article and I don't think they're mocking them, I think they're saying that, hey, listen when you when you launch your app, you actually get to scratch off what your first stock is that they give you for free.

Seth: And balloons fall and confetti happens and.

Ben:  Yeah and then and then you now have a stock that you're watching. It's it's extremely clever to drag people into gambling, ‘cause that's what they are. I mean, I honestly do believe that they're just promoting straight up gambling in that they're not building real investors, though I think that you know you know, to each their own and take as much risk as you want. I mean, we have gambling is legal in a lot of states these days, so you know, I think this is where you know are you know the SCC offender regular all trying to figure out you know where did they where do they step in? What should they be doing with? What should they be doing? But I will tell you that through this whole pandemic the millennials and the gens Z’ers have proven how smart they are because they have literally put out put out apistos hedge fund companies and made them lose billions and billions of dollars. And they have figured out how to manipulate the system. So kudos to them for outsmarting the people who have been in the business for you know, decades upon decades, upon hundreds of years of firms that they have. I think honestly that’s the biggest kick in the teeth and funny from my perspective so.  

Seth: Folks, that's gonna do it for us in Money In The News.

Ben: Already Seth?

Seth: Its that quick, we got that big of a show coming up for you that we can't take anymore time away, but it's going happen quick and its gonna happen now. You’re listening to Money On Tap, you can reach us on 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com  and one other plug here - YouTubers out there. Yeah, we're there to haven't really said that a whole lot but it's one of the places we put together information together for you and hopefully here in the near future we look forward to putting some videos and stuff like that together soon so you know what it gonna be fun and we’re gonna have a load of fun engaging with you guys today. Don't go anywhere you’re listening to Money On Tap.

For a number of our listeners they have a lot of questions and you might be one of them. Today were just offering what we call zoominars, webinars over zoom meeting rooms where we have top experts, social security, estate planning, and financial planning experts for you to speak with, do a private consultation that way today. We’re also having webinar based zoominars where we’re gonna have multiple groups where you can be part of that and enjoy that as well coming up here in the new year. Give us a call at 855-226-8551 or email us at info@yourmoneyontap.com to schedule your zoominar.

Now back to Money On Tap with Ben and Seth

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Seth: Welcome back you’re listening to Money On Tap, you can reach us at 855-226-8551 or email us at info@yourmoneyontap.com.  Folks we are having a great time here today. We've got guests. We've got people that have been around the horn a few times. Ben and I are here and what does that mean? Well, we're going to get a lot of opinions here today. We're going to get a lot of facts. We're also going to get a different perspective on what an aging America means to you. What does that look like pushing through our economy? And what does that look like in terms of investments? And I think there's also a place that we want to kind of have a little bit of heart moment here with you, which is recognizing that we have people in our lives today that are aging. And whether that's you, whether that your parents, or your grandparents, whoever those people are, there are things that you can be preparing for, and you can be thoughtful about in walking through a season of life that that can be very hard to relate with at times that can be really hard to connect with and or even prepared for and I would say for myself, I'm one of those people that I don't want to look at it with moment when I take a look at my parents. It's a hard thing for me to connect that this is my this is my mom and dad in their 80s. Life is different for them. What do I need to be doing as their son? Because it's different as a planner I would say that's one of the things that that's the human part of who we are here today. With you end and I look forward to the stories and Ben would you please take it from there and talk more?

Ben: And sure, yeah, no. I think I think you bring up a lot of really good points. I mean. All of us deal with clients in lots of different positions that are difficult and complicated, and we have you know, it's not just parents its spouses too is all sorts of different issues and concerns. I think the thing is that you know around every difficulty around every concern, everything that you're trying to mitigate inside your investments along with your issue, you know, like the parents and what's going on with that demographic. There's always a buying and selling scenario there. There's always the what should I do with my investments based on this event in life and we talk about this from time to time. We talk about how we have, you know, 320 million Americans in this country and that's a lot of people. I mean, that is a group of people that are all making decisions at different courses and stands in their life at different age brackets that at the time in which they are you know, retiring or entering the workforce or having children. We all have these different kinds of experiences. But how you're investing your money at that time in your life is really one of those things that is dictated by those circumstances, or even whether how much you're investing or how you're allocating those funds. And I think the thing is, is that we talk a lot about aging America and what that is, and what I want to talk about today, and I think the big course of the conversation is really about how to invest around aging America how to make money around aging America. What is aging America doing with their money and how is that going to impact your investments moving forward? I think this is the conversation of a show that you really need to to be having with anybody you're doing you're doing investment work with  because ultimately if yore not having this conversation, you may be missing out or leaving yourself liable or in potentially problematic investment standpoint.

Dan: That's completely true, I mean each phase of life has its own needs and concerns and risks and things that just need to be addressed, and there's no more, or at least as important as any other component of that is how you financially plan for those times and what money gets set aside and what end of purpose it may be. So that's where the advice and counsel of planners like us who had the benefit of seeing many families and individuals go through all these turns and twists in life. You know we can apply that knowledge and experience to your personal situation, and that's really the benefit that we bring and honestly, the joy of the work we do.

Seth: Dan, you actually have some personal experience working with your grandparents in doing in home care with them through a season of their life too so there is that personal aspect that you that you just cannot deny that perspective in what we're bout to talk to talk about too.

Dan: Yeah, nothing, nothing brings you closer to realizing the importance of these things and kind of the delicacy of those times then going through it with a loved one. I mean there was impactful and in every kind of way. And you know when it's when it's your situation it's more than money, it's you know it's real life and it's loved ones you know and for us it's sometimes easier to be a step removed and be dealing really with the kind of facts and figures that matter without having to have that same degree of emotional attachment. I mean, it's it may feel detached or cold, but you know the advice that we're giving comes from experience and is really intended to get you through those experiences in the best possible way.

Seth: Tony, you're, you're new to money on tap today, but not new to investing. Not new to this scenario at these questions. My question for you is first question out of the gate, would you like that to be a softball or a hardball today?

Anthony: Oh yeah, love softball over here.

Seth: OK, I'll give you the softball, I'll tell you what the hardball is first. So and hey, let's talk about making money supply and demand. How do you make money? And then here's the softball. How do you make money on a situation?

Anthony: Well, I mean that's it's a good question. I think Dan made a lot of really good points in terms of the the phase of life type of thing you know, I do definitely have a larger planning background than just the investment portion of it and have spent a lot of time developing strategies for folks because at each stage of life there are different needs and importance’s and one of the things I tend to start with making money in particular is kind of start with an end in mind is if you don't have a goal, you have no way to benchmark your progress. You know people are very familiar with, you know looking at different ways to determine their success in investing, but it's different for each individual. So depending on where you want to end up and what you're planning for, really should determine what you're what you're setting your sights on for investment performance and how to make money you know, and that gets into the risk portion as well, because a lot of people don't want to take, especially as they are aging anymore risk than necessary. But sometimes that's the risk if they don't take enough, then they run the risk of not making enough, especially with life expectancies, continuing to be pushed out later and later, the assets that people have need to be able to last that length of time to protect them, whether it's for their lifestyle or for health or for, you know, a state transfer. If that's what's important to them so. More complicated question in softball.

Ben: That's for sure. That was for sure. You know, I think about, you know, the aging America and I think let's let's just jump into the demographic shift. I think that would be the next best step and it will kind of go through that and how that might be from an investment piece really the next move. When we talk about investments and we're working through the conversation of that with our clients and looking at where the market is moving really, you have to ask yourself kind of how the history of like, for instance, the baby boomers have driven investing for the past 40 years. You know they've been investing since, you know day one putting their money in their 401K's and breaking it up you know, across that kind of generic theme of large, mid and small cap investments, kind of the large companies down to the small companies. And you know that demographic has made money that way. They've made money that way by continuing to put money in and so forth. But I know look at things and how the world's moving in the changes this. There's about 320 million Americans, and if you've heard our show before you've heard us talk about this. But this is the investment story. The investment story is those 320 million Americans - basically, only about 15% of Americans retired. But that's the highest it's ever been. In 2007 we crossed about 5% of America retired for the first time ever, and now we're at 15, and in the next 20 years we're going to go from about 35 million 40 million people retired to a total of 120 million Americans retired.

Seth: You know, I love it Ben, I just pulled up this seniorcare.com aging American website and the number right now I'm watching some of the digits like role by as you're talking is 56 776 000. Just moved to 76 button hit 77. That's incredible.

Ben: Yeah, it's amazing young people in their retiring at such huge rates and when you think about what like Iacocca for instance, and how he transformed the automobile industry by, you know the Mustang, the Pinto, the minivan, like he was moving along with the demands of the baby boomers and what and that's why he was so successful.

Seth: And that was pretty much his generation, right?

Ben: Yeah

Seth: I mean, I think it's more the styles generation.

Ben: Yeah, he was right before that. But he was watching this. He had the perspective of the demand.

Seth: Right. Supply - demand. These are this is these are who were going to be catering to.

Ben: So when you take that into an investment piece and you start looking at what is the supply and demand story around investments and how does that work? Well, the baby boomers are retiring every day and people walk through our door and say I need two things. I need enough income to retire. And I don't want to lose my money. That's just saying I need income and safety.

Seth: Yeah.

Ben; Now in today's marketplace when you start looking at different, there's lots of different ways you can go to safety, but when they look at their 401K and John Hancock had a study and I've talked about this before, I think it's like 86% of Americans never rebalance or reallocate their 401K. They never change it, so that means from day one to the day they retire, they hit, oh, goodness gracious I have all these small caps and midcap, you know I don't need all this risk and. I want to lower that risk and when I lower that risk I want to get income. And we see people moving to like large blue chip companies. And then you know you normally think hey, listen a lot of people would be racing towards bonds, but we all know that bonds yields have just dropped. I mean like a rocket or drop like a rock. I guess it should say not a rocket, right? Right, but you know when you start thinking about that, people don't want the bonds because they know that soon as breaks go up, their bonds are going to drop in value. And if you don't understand that, that's something you should give us a call about, but what we see is people moving to this lower risk higher yield you know income positioned portfolio and if all of a sudden 38% of the current population all of a sudden is doing that as a big group that's a massive tandem swing in our market based on how money is being allocated. Now that doesn't mean that the small cap and the midcap assets are not good companies. They could be totally the greatest company in the world doing wonderful things but the truth is if people don't want to own that company is going force share price down. Do I think this is a massive problem that's going to really heavily impact our stock market? I'm not sure on that level, but I think that over the next 20 years, just even looking at some of the charts we have like the asset allocation diversification for the last 20 years, you can see trends of large cap value just continuing to rise on average over the last 20 year. I mean you could see them moving forward that demands naturally, increasing just by the by the numbers. I think that people can make a lot more money than they were writing about this risk over the next 20 years versus the person getting ready for retirement. This is the danger zone, right? This is the person getting ready to retire thinking about retiring 5 or 10 years saying well I’m going to keep things as is. Meanwhile people are slowly selling those assets that they own in their portfolios, small and Midcap. Like seeing a decline in those. And then them getting to retirement, saying boy, I didn't see as much growth as the market saw. Right when we talk about the SNP 500 we’re talking about large cap companies, we're not talking about small and mid. And people don't realize it. Like oh I own the SNP500, we’re good there. That’s great but is that really get you the large cap value play that seems to have the upper and continuing to move forward? Not entirely. I mean you get exposure to it but if the growth trend fails and the value you get a zero on that. So now that's I think when we talk about aging America in the investing you know that’s really kinda the  first piece, that's the scope of kinda breakdown your investments, but then as we shift we talk about long term care now had passed it over to Dan.

Dan: Yeah, that's what you know. One of the biggest threats to even the best laid financial plan is the medical risk and the immense cost that comes with any type of a nursing home or sits at living experience so that. You know, as planners, that's one of the things that is probably the least fun conversation you could have with a prospect or a client, but one of the most critical, you know, as we spend hours and hours building out that plan and over the course of years of investing with somebody and hundreds of meetings. The biggest threat that truly exists is the unknown of how to fund an absolutely tragic and traumatic and hugely expensive care situation. And we think the couple of decent solutions for that. You know in particular, there's one product offered through a company that we work with called One America that addresses is lot of these needs and you know really to kind of keep it short, but the the biggest thing that they offer that we feel like makes them even get is have a joint lifetime benefit so you'd be able to cover at least to some extent long term care, nursing home type expenses over the entire lives of a couple. With that in home care included as well, which is a big trend now obviously with as the pandemic is affected, nursing homes and medical facilities in general. You know people have always wanted to stay out of there as long as they possibly could and this is only enhanced that story and that home care situation is really something that people you know would choose to go through 1st and try and spend as much time with family at home as they possibly could in these policies are geared up to do that so you know that is one of the ways that we can address that situation. Maybe not entirely, but certainly do a level enough to give a family and give a married couple some choice in a little bit of funding and the ability to kind of dictate how care will be receive you know as the health deteriorates. And again as planners it's not a fun topic, but it's a critical one to address. At least not stand what the risk represents for everybody.

Seth: How many, how many times have you had the conversation with a client and you're taking a look at where they've allocated their money and they've got a significant portion of their assets built up in a 401K or an IRA? And we refer to that as being IRA poor. You've got a lot of money, but it's in a qualified pool of money, the IRA or the 401K. And every time you take a distribution on that, its taxable and there's no way around it or you don't have the ability to really funnel that money along over to a long term care solution So having that conversation how many times have you gotten kind of locked into there just isn't a solution over here in the long term Care World for you because you don't have the assets where we need them to be and how do we get them over there? And I love to help you were talking about them having some real opportunity for people that that are there right now.

Dan :Yeah, this care is expensive and you know one of the things that you know really holds people back from adding it to their plan is the cost of it and how do they most effectively acquire that care? And this product does offer a solution there. They are actually able to take qualified or IRA dollars and use those funds to build a pool of available dollars to be spent in a long term care situation again where that be at home or nursing home assisted living. And they’re truly unique in that they’re really the only company that's able to do that. And that's one of the reasons that we look to them is you know, people hate the notion of this kind of misconception they have of the old nursing home insurance where you pay for it forever, it's exorbitantly expensive and if you don't have that care event, you get no benefit is essentially the insurance company keeping your money. That is absolutely not the case here. You know with this particular product, we recommend whether you use it for care costs, whether you decide to opt out and request back your premium, or if you hold it and end up passing on you when you spouse without ever having that caravan, you're lucky enough to do that then it would pass on to your state to your beneficiaries as you've designated, so you'll never run into that situation where the money was spent and just never came back to you.

Ben: You know, Dan, I you know I've used this product pretty regularly with people who are looking for long term care solutions, and I'll tell you there is just them having a patent on that qualify that retirement funds to put that money in without taking that huge tax hit and being able to move that money very slowly but instantly provide you that full long term care coverage I think is fantastic. It is a solution that has been needed across the board, there just isn’t a lot of conversation around it. People don't know who what America is, you know it's a rating company. They don't understand the quality of the company behind it. And when you realize that you have a really solid program out here that's going to resolve your need because so many people are latent with too much IRA money like that kind of sounds silly, but people say, well, I don't have too much IRA money I just taking what they're taking income from their IRA’s maybe in retirement but they maybe don't take all the income they could take, there’s a portion of it they can sustain their regular income by segmenting a portion out and  then maybe allocating it to a 1 America contract. That is just a huge solution piece.

Seth: Folks you listen and Money On Tap you could reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com we appreciate joining us here today. If you are grabbing us right now via radio, welcome we enjoy the opportunities to have those conversations with you. If you're grabbing us through a podcast or if you like to listen to us again, or some of the other podcasts that we put out there. Just go to your podcast venue. Any one of them will have us at Money On Tap, and that's a lot of fun for us to hear from you folks too. We're going to take a quick break we’ll  be right back with more an Aging America, and what will this look like for you.

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Seth: Folks we have a lot of fun doing this show Money On Tap and Ben and I have been financial planners for years and years and our goal here with you is to bring you into the room have the conversations that we have. We think these are critical conversations for you, but we understand this is a limited space and what we'd love to do is to open the doors to you with us at Brayshaw Financial Group. So you could experience what it means to have 3 dimensional planning in your life. Lets take a look at all sides of your situation, your scenario and see how we can put together the best plan possible, taking into account your risk, how much can you have in the market? How much do we need to have set aside and doing different things for your life? That's what we do, as planners, how we engage with you and we welcome you to do that with us. You can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. Now if you have $250 000 that are investable assets today our planning is free to you. We want you to have the playbook to have a successful experience in retirement. Give us a call  855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. Ben and I welcome you to Brayshaw Financial for complete wealth management.

Now back to money on tap with Ben and Seth.

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Seth: Welcome back. You're listening to Money On Tap, you can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. It is it's a topic here with you today, believe it or not, it pertains to you, it applies to you and it applies to all of us because we're all here together in America, and we're aging, and we have an aging population that it's increasing every day. We take a look around and there's more and more people over the age of 65 and right now, if you were to take a look at the population it's 25 states that is the population of retired Americans right now. It's huge, over 50 million seniors and one of the greatest needs that we come to as people are looking for our advice as financial planners is lifetime income. And we've had lots of talks about this in it's not the one that everybody grabs off the shelf. It says, hey, let's talk about lifetime income. How do I build a pension for myself is usually what we're talking about at that point, and sometimes people come to us and they have a pension. They have more than one pension and that's wonderful to be able to find those, but more and more the pension or the lifetime income that a pension would have provided is not part of the story. What is the story look like? What does the landscape look like for so many of our seniors today is this. They've had more than five jobs. They have a 401K or maybe multiple 401K’s that they've contributed towards and they really don't know how to create income from the resources they have. They have maybe taken some classes on Social Security or talk to somebody at the Social Security Administration of what they need, what they, what are their options. But they don't necessarily know what the best way for them to even take Social Security is and that Social Security is really a form of lifetime income. So what we want to talk about is this is I want to talk about I want to kind of go into a place and understand that yes, it's not the first thing that we want to talk about. It's not the hot stock, it's not the large cap growth. It's not that's not what we're talking about.

Ben: I want to talk about that.

Seth: I do too. I really that's that makes me more happy. But what happens in this conversation as we started to really put together what I think of as a worst-case scenario like come hell or high water. Whatever happens in the next 5-10, 15, 20 years you know the dollars that are walking through the door. And if we can create some kind of a solution for you, that's the baseline of a lifetime income where you can feel confident and comfortable that you know you're going to be able to live. You might have to trim something over here. It may not be your ideal solution, but if we have something in place there for you. What happens is this - we find that the studies have shown that people a live longer,  well, a lot of the times well into their 90s. They're much happier. They just have this presence about them that is more at peace. And what is the connection there? I don't know. I don't have the answer for you on that, it just is what we experience and I matter fact when I'm having the conversation too and we get to that solution, I feel much better because now we can start to have more fun conversations around the periphery of what can we do for, you know, legacy and grandkids and you know some of these other things that maybe, you know, vacations. That's the fun stuff. That's the joy. Because we've done the kind of that that built that foundational piece, that foundational element, the rest of it can come together. The big picture can come together, and I share this often, and this comes to comes back to building a skyscraper and the image of building a skyscraper, I don't know if you ever.

Ben: I haven't built one yet.

Seth: It's quite a journey on average, thank you Ben, on average… OK, we'll go around the horn here for a second. Do you know how long on average it takes to build a skyscraper? Just a guess.

Ben: Two years, eight months, and three days.

Seth: That is really close, OK? It is 3 years it is 3 years on average and you, I mean, when you think of like build up come take a look at the most beautiful buildings in the world. Most people think of the skyscrapers. They're just incredible architectural masterpieces. Over half of the time, a year and a half is spent building a foundation for that. The rest of that goes up pretty darn quickly in comparison, but that's what we're talking about a lot of the time when we talk about a foundational element or a lifetime income, and how critical that is unless you spend the time going through that process and understanding how this piece is really a critical element for you and your retirement, the rest of it just kind of may not ever happen is the truth about it and it may not I mean you might have a beautiful vision but that just may not be a possibility. If we put this piece together, the rest of those pieces can fall into place much more quickly and be and it's just the journey becomes a lot more fun overall. And that's really what I had to share about that, Tony, I want to ask you a question as far as if some of your experience you shared some stories with us in it, just working with some different demographics, especially with doctors and in some of the some of the feedback and the experiences that you shared there, what are some of the critical elements that you come to when you talk about like preparing  retirement, preparing for state type of scenarios.

Anthony: Thanks Seth. You guys have made some really excellent points and the foundational visual is very important. I mean being primarily planner as I mentioned earlier, it isn't the exciting thing to talk about. It isn't the thing that folks come in and want to kind of dig down into and start, you know, addressing it's more about you know how much I have in assets and how I can make them grow? As I mentioned earlier, without kind of an end in mind where you want to be, it's kind of hard to do that, but another challenge is what you guys have been talking about the health risks, longevity, risks and as Seth just mentioned the foundational portion and a big part of that is something that. You know, for whatever reason, whether it's you know parents and children or even significant others, life partners, spouses, etc., don't necessarily want to talk about because you know they may not want to address it themselves is you know their plans if something doesn't go well. You plan for the worst hope for the best. And if you, if you overlook the planning necessary to take care of yourself and your family when the worst happens, it can be it can be a time bomb for your whole plan it can you know the entire building, the skyscraper can collapse around the foundation if you don't have that strong foundation, and one of those things are the legal documents as Seth mentioned I work a lot with positions in the area, work in the large Medical Center and it's something that I hear constantly is when folks come in, whether, even if it's for a procedure as you age, you know a lot of times folks need to have certain procedures regularly and you know at that time, going into, then have to address if the documents necessary to make certain decisions or for somebody to be able to make decisions on your behalf if first, whatever reason something goes wrong and you're unable to, whether it's personally based on your goals, like do not resuscitate order. A lot of folks I've spoken with in the past haven't had that conversation with each other. If something were to happen what would they want to be done or not done and you know these are conversations that couples need to have with each other and families need to have with their children or at least somebody designated, even if it's a third party that understands what your wishes are and helps you make sure that you have the documents in place to make sure that at that time, especially if it is, you know, a time that's not due to a positive result, you're not focused on something other than taking care of which important to yourself, your family, etc. You don't want to have to be running to court to get you know probate order to release funds if somebody doesn't have durable power of attorney in place. So reviewing your financial, you know your legal documents and not just from an estate planning standpoint but just you know making sure that there is somebody in place that knows your wishes that has the ability to voice those wishes on your behalf to make financial decisions or transactions for you. It's incredibly valuable, and it's one of those things that, again, as we mentioned earlier, it's not it's a hard conversation to have sometimes, but it is something that you know once you do address it and face the reality that that is something that that needs to be looked at and can be very help positive in the long run. It's not really that challenging to take care of.

Seth: You know, Tony. I'm just thinking about. You know, yeah? I mean, a lot of us have loved ones. Go in to the hospital and you know, the doctor presents that kind of one page slip that says sign here for your health care directives. And it's, I mean, you're in this emotional moment. You're figuring out what you want to do, do not resuscitate, resuscitate. You're like I don't know that I'm ready to die today like it's it's not that. It's not really a great emotional time to make those decisions on what you really want at that point, and I think and it was funny is how many doctors don't have the stuff in place? I mean they see this every day and they would say you know you should probably a prep this. Do you have these forms like they don't have the forms either most of the time and that's OK, I mean, but they don't have people holding their hands. We have on staff, you know, legal help here we've got. We've got other attorneys that we work with here locally. We have a number of resources where we can, kind of someone came in, we could just literally, you manage that process for them to get these you know these kind of tasks done in their life and not all of them have to be super expensive or large outlay. We have attorneys that do all different levels of the needed based work and it's priced accordingly which is good and but you know you don't want no one wants to be stuck in that moment. Right before they're going to pull out a knife and cut you open and figure out whether or not you. Who's going to make these decisions for you? Like, oh, I don't know, should I have this cousin, Uncle, nephew you know, brother, sister, you know what do I want to do this? And you know, sitting down with an attorney and kind of discerning who it is, and then if they're not available, who that next person would be and you know making sure that you're in a good place on those decisions. That's the healthy way to do it,so.

Anthony: Right and just from experience that the people that recognize that most as we mentioned earlier within are the folks that have gone through that. If they've had a family member that they've had to do that, and there be happy and the planning wasn't in place ahead of time, they recognize you know what a nightmare it is to have to address those things in the heat of the emotional moment. And they personally don't want to necessarily put their family, their children, their grandchildren, through that themselves and they're very adamant about making sure that that's something that's this taken care of and as Ben mentioned, you know may not be something that you need all of everything, but evaluating which things? Are important to you in your situation and then you know taking care of those things, they're pertinent to you, you know can be very important to save a lot of headaches in the end. And as I mentioned, even if things go well, but they are delayed and somebody ends up having a longer recovery time and they need to access some funds for whatever and it's an account that's in their name only, just being able to access them on their behalf can make a world of difference and it's not as easy as just going in and saying, well, my husband's you know recovering and can make you know this decision on his own. So he's asked me to do it and they're not they're not going to be able to make that transaction for you so there are ways to kind of circumvent that ahead of time.

Seth: Folks, you're listening to Money On Tap. You could reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. We have been talking about an aging America. There's all sorts of topics in and around this that we've been discussing today and we’re going to come back here in just a couple more minutes and kind of land the plane here with a couple ideas and we’re going to take this around the table for each of us to kind of grab apart here in this kind of last thoughts, right? What did we learn today? Where we at with this. You can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. We’ll be right back.

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Ben: If you're listening today and you know your questions are outside the box of estate planning or financial planning or any number of the pieces that we kind of traditionally talk about, don't forget the Bradshaw Financial offers auto, home and business insurance, and we have an entire department that handles all of that for you. Give us a call at 855. 2268551 and be happy to take care of those these for you or email said info@yourmoneyontap.com.

Now back to money on tap with Ben and Seth.

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Seth: Welcome back you’re listening to Money On Tap, you can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com and having a lot of fun here today talking about an aging America and it's a part of our life that touches each and every one of us. Nobody is, nobody is separate from or other than. We all get to be here together and have this conversation and it's one that's really critical. We talked a little bit about investing like what are some ways that you can kind of be investing in the supply and demand around an aging America and other critical components like long term care in that conversation and that need that just need primarily should be addressed in the planning as well as lifetime income and what are some of the documents that we need to be thinking about? How do we prepare advanced directives and in the conversations around those. So it's been a really full conversation for us here and Tony Scola has been joining us here today. Partner and in mostly just a friend and he's part of Brayshaw Financial Group. I don't think your microphones on there Ben I appreciate that you didn't get… (inaudible) just not needed. Not necessary. He's yes, so we were just talking with Tony about kind of his experience in preparing these legal documents and how that's really not the funnest thing to probably have the conversation around, but a greater sense of how we can be. At ease once we've gone through this process and having those conversations ahead of sitting in the doctor's office signing the paper saying what your advanced directory will be at that moment where that's an emotional experience. And if you've been there with a loved one, an experience this yourself. God bless you ‘cause it is not, it is it is a challenge so having the conversation ahead of time. What's important, what's important? Well, you know, we think assembling a team is really critical and we focus with our clients here at Brashaw Financial Group a lot on this, it's the CPA. It's a lot of the time it can even be a relative or a friend that you bring into the conversation and help them to understand what your wishes are.

Ben: I like that and I think you know having that person is going to provide a little bit of guidance. Maybe some third kind of third perspective you know the additional like 'cause you're an emotional state and you know we talk about investments all the time and I mean like I come over and say hey Dan take a look at my portfolio tell me what you think. Do you see something I don't? Having that litmus test of just saying am I blinded by something here, right? Yeah, my blinded by.

Seth: What do I not see?

Ben: Yeah exactly and I mean you know lots of thought around this, not just your own is really valuable and we encourage that. I can't tell you how many people have come into this you know into the into the office and have brought people on the phone to talk with us to kind of go through it. If anyone's not willing to kind of expose or open up that storyline, that would be a concern to me as a consumer, you know so that's I think that's a good point and sorry to interrupt Seth. Go ahead.

Seth: I'm not 'cause I was done.

Ben: Oh, you were?

Seth: That was it.

Ben: I think the team concept, I think is is something that we all practice. I mean, we're always dealing with attorneys and CPA’s and you know, I mean, you name it we’re the financial word financial arm but having somebody, we usually end up kind of leading the pack most of the time.

Seth: Yeah, it becomes that much more from kind of the quarterback position in working through these scenarios and things change is wealth kind of moves up the tiers, right? When we start talking about 5-10, 15, 20 million, it's just kind of a different story at that point more often we're going to be sitting down with a larger group of people that work you know specifically in the context of what they work in and what they work through. But getting that team all together all on board is just a real critical element here because you don't want to do it alone, you don't have to and you don't want to. And having the right people in place and add that takes time because a lot of the time we're needing to learn to communicate with a different culture or a different entity, and in what they do specifically for you and your family, and getting on the same page.

Anthony: I totally agree Seth, actually, that's one of the things that you mentioned being a quarterback, I've used the analogy of an orchestra conductor as well you know, finding a trusted advisor that you feel comfortable disclosing your situation to and having these conversations with can be really important. And it also minimizes your, you know, the work that you need to put in. Most people don't want to spend time doing the research and digging in doing the due diligence on solutions and things like that, but having a team that they trust to be able to, you know, call that that special teams line out to take care of whatever it is that comes up, and knowing who needs to be addressed. Who needs to be included in the conversation and bringing them together on your behalf is one of the things that you know my clients have had voiced is one of the biggest values to them, so it's a very important piece of the puzzle is to be able to construct that team and trust it they’re looking out for your best interest so.

Dan: One of the biggest components, I think that that I've seen and experience about this whole conversation, and it's amazing to witness sometimes, but even before you bring in all of the outside experts and the people you would rely upon to give you specific advice for specific instances you know, make sure you take the time at home to have that conversation. Make sure that you know the goals that you thought you had in common 20-30 years ago when you started a family and bought a house and had the kids, you know they may not be the same today and you know it's a lot easier for the specialists in end all the various fields to put together the plan and try to keep you on that that rail to make sure that your achieve the goals you have. It's important for us to really understand that the goals are what you think they are, and so I definitely welcome people to console with us first. Have that conversation where we can, you know, essentially asking the questions that go home with, and then sit down at home with family with the most concerned loved ones and come back to us once you've really identified what those goals are and make sure that those wishes are in common still and what you thought they were 20 years ago when you had that conversation last.

Seth: Folks have been listening to Money On Tap, and hopefully you've gathered some information here that you could take home and have that coffee table conversation at dinner table conversation with you the people that you love and did you care for and that care about you. Bring that back to Brayshaw Financial Group. We’re all planners and partners here at Brayshaw Financial. Tony, Dan, Ben, I'm Seth, all of us here at Brayshaw Financial, we welcome you were glad to have you and thank you so much for your time today. We look forward to talking with you next week.

You've been listening to Money On Tap. You can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. You can also find us at Facebook we’re at \3DInvesting, we're also on Twitter at BFG_LLC. And as always you can also find us at yourmoneyontapped.com. Thanks for listening. Thanks for liking our podcast. We appreciate you and we can't wait to make it a great day and a great life with you here at Money On Tap.

DISCLAIMER: The musics pressed are not necessarily the opinion of this radio station and should not be construed directly or indirectly as an offer to buy or sell any securities mentioned herein. Investing is subject to risks, including loss of principle invested, no strategy, product material or tool mentioned can assure a profit or protect against loss. Please note that individual situations can vary. Therefore, the information, products, materials or tools mentioned should be relied upon when coordinated with individual professional advice. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results. This show may be subsidized in whole or in part by a product sponsor or issuer. Securities and Advisory services offered through Sagepoint Financial Incorporated member FINRA, SIPC and a registered investment advisor. All other services offered through Brayshaw Financial Group, LLC are independent of Sage Point Financial Sagepoint Financial and Brayshaw Financial Group do not provide tax or legal advice. Main office is located at 116 S River Rd, Bedford, NH 03110 and can be reached at toll free 8552268551.

MOT 165 Episode Summary

On this episode of Money on Tap, hosts Seth Krussman and Ben Brayshaw discuss how to invest during a period of inflation. Joined by Dan Michelon, they dive into what exactly the Covid19 pandemic means for your investing opportunities, covering topics such as, is now the time to buy a home? Is gold a safe investment? And what’s the deal with NFTs? 

MOT 165 Transcription

Welcome to “Money on Tap”

[Music]

Ben: “Money on Tap”, your personal finance headquarters, where we bring out the professionals experienced in some fun, in what we call three-dimensional investing – utilizing insurance, brokerage, and fee-based planning. That’s what we do on this show, we look at all sides of the issues, we bring a fully independent planning perspective to the table.

Seth: You can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. And folks, we’ve got a great show lined up for you today. My names Seth Krussman and I’m joined here once again with Benjamin Brayshaw. How are you Ben?

Ben: Good Seth, how you doing?                                                

Seth: I’m good; I liked your good. That was a good way to just start it off. “Good”

Ben: I want to make it firm and real.

Seth: Yeah, yeah. More exciting than you and me, or you and I, is Dan. Say hi Dan.

Dan: Glad to be here, thank you Seth.

Seth: Good. Dan is also partnered with Brayshaw Financial Group; at Brayshaw Financial we are planners. Well if you tuned in last week you heard us just go on and on and on about this wonderful studio that has been built at the main office in Bedford and so we all get to stand here together around this table and have fun.

Ben: We’re excited this is, this is going to make our technology stuff so much simpler. I’m very excited about this.

Seth: It only took like four years.

Ben: Four plus years, yes it did.

Seth: Well there was the seven year search for the new office and then –

Ben: Well it was great when we were doing it live on the radio. I mean I loved that, that was easy, we walked in, somebody took care of all the audio, everything was fantastic.

Seth: You had to speak, the dead air could not happen. The laughter had to be at a minimum. And we made good friends too. That was a really good experience.

Ben: Yeah that was a good time. Good time.

Seth: Hey, we are going to have a show for you; I promised it was going to be a good one. I have to remember what it is first and foremost because I want to talk about last week but I think what we’re going to talk about this week is we’re going to talk about how do you, how do you invest through inflationary periods. If we’re taking a look at that and taking a look at this possibility that we’re in a, or a soon to be period of inflation here, maybe something that you’ve never experienced in your investing, you’ve never thought of what that could look like and how that could affect your investments. Ok we had plenty of banter around what is inflation and what are the things that cause, and is it real, and how real is it, and what levels, last week, that was last week’s show, but we want to be prepared. And that’s part of what looking at the big picture three-dimensional investing accomplishes. If you have a planner and you’re working with somebody in your finances this should be top of mind for them right now in how to adjust you and your personal finances to be successful through a period of inflation. So that’s what the backbone of this show is going to get to today and it is fun, believe me it is a great topic. And thanks for all the likes and the listens by the way, we do appreciate that.

Ben: We do, we do. Well, without further ado, we have “Money in the News.”

[Music] 

Seth: US home prices rise at the fastest pace in 15 years. S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Index increased 11.2% in the year, ended in January, and that is the highest since February 2006. And if that means nothing to you just try to say that phrase, S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Index increased 11.2%, five times fast, it’s a good party gig.

Ben: You know Seth, I mean with all the different things that have been happening in the real estate world, it’s kind of been that perfect storm. Rates have dropped, the interest in trying to get out of the cities, the millennials are you know of ripe age to matriculate into their own home and, there’s been that argument that they have never really been interested in buying real estate or homes and so forth, and now with covid it really has pushed people to kind of reconsider that.

Dan: Yeah, I mean obviously with the mortgage rates hitting as low as 3% in July, it was a great incentive for anybody who may be considering it, and with the mass exodus out of cities and apartments and that kind of high rise style of living, you know the real estate market’s been booming.

Seth: Yeah, like there’s places in the continent that we’ve never seen have this kind of boom. Boise is one of them that’s near us. Montana. Arizona.

Ben: Didn’t we do a show, didn’t we have a “Money in the News” thing about the different cities –

Seth: I think it was like the top fastest growing places –

Ben: They were paying people to come.

Seth: Oh that one, yes we did, we did do that.

Ben: Yeah it was like these different cities were literally offering major incentives for people to move there.

Seth: Now we’ve got you know at least three people that are moving to Nashville, or Tennessee.

Ben: I know we know a ton of people that are moving. 

Seth: Yeah, I’ve been there and I love it. I wouldn’t mind.

Ben: You’re moving away from us, Seth. Dan, are you moving?

Dan: Not yet, but I’m considering it now.

Seth: Did we, we talked you into it. Rates are low. They still are and that’s an incredible part of what’s fueled so much of this boom in the real estate. And like you said Dan, the move, the exodus from the city because people I guess realized that being outside and being able to go places was apart of the life that they enjoyed in the city and that being stripped out, wanting a yard, wanting to play, wanting to do more normal things.

I’ve talked to several real estate friends and constantly the conversation revolves around this lack of inventory, like they just can’t get a house on the market and once its on its gone, like multiple offers again.

Dan: You can’t even look at houses in some areas.  

Seth: No, sight unseen you better make sure that you’re throwing a bunch of cash at the thing and certainly some challenge there for the people regardless of the rates being low. First-time homebuyers are having real struggles to get into a market even. But yeah, the supply and demand and that’s what we were talking about last week, is the money supply. If we have a glut of money in the system what happens with those consumer prices? Well this is one of those areas that that in real estate that we have seen rise faster than what that 1.4, 1.6% CPI has been rising at and it is an asset to, real estate is an asset, and we’re going to talk about that coming up, I can’t wait. But before we do, Dan has been some place that I have dreamt of. Why don’t you tell us Dan a little bit about where you’ve been in this world and what happens when you walk into places that you’re, that you weren’t quite dressed correctly.

Dan: Yeah I was lucky enough to get to take a weeklong trip to Monaco and I was also lucky enough to experience getting tossed out of probably the finest establishment of my life. The Grand Casino there is a heck of a take, I’d recommend it to anyone but be sure you’re black tie.

Seth: Oh ok, so it wasn’t your accent?

Dan: No, no they let me in with that. I don’t think I’d spoken a word yet that might have helped after I tried to argue my way to stay, but yeah my finest suit was not enough. Got maybe two rooms in and they escorted me you know, quite quickly out the door.

Ben: Just because you weren’t wearing a black tux?

Dan: Had to have a tuxedo just to step in there and gamble, just to walk around and look, had to be in a tux.

Seth: How much, I mean it just must of been beautiful; the building must have been gorgeous.

Dan: Oh absolutely gorgeous, I mean you see the craps table from the James Bond movies. It really does look exactly like that.

Ben: What’s the a game they always play in James Bond I can’t remember it’s ah, baccarat

Seth: Baccarat

Ben: Baccarat

Dan: Yeah on the way out I took a picture against the finest car I never owned, this beautiful Ferrari right out front, I needed to have a memento since I didn’t really get to take it all in from the inside. I figured I’d get a quick shot on the outside.

Seth: Right I feel like as they tossed you, you were taking a picture.

Dan: That’s right.

Ben: I was hoping it was like a convertible and you like hoped over and slid in the seat and then –

Dan: Well there was a little bit of white snake going on, a little bit of white snake video, you know a little crawling around on the hood but –

Seth: You weren’t wearing the black tie they thought you were the valet

Dan: Well you know they already kicked me out once I figured what’s the worse they can do from here, so.

Seth: They probably could tell you that before that you needed to experience it. You might want to ask next time. So Monaco is in the news and Monaco is one of those places we don’t talk about a whole lot just because you know well, we don’t, well, Ben you own a couple places there don’t you?

Ben: Well you know, whatever. 

Seth: That’s why you know we don’t want to talk about it a whole lot but Monaco reigns now as the world’s priciest area to buy a home again. So, I mean if you thought that home prices here, which they’re reasonable, I would say in comparison, maybe not in comparison to the rest of the US, but, in comparison to Monaco, holy cow. This country held on to the title despite a 39% drop in sales of properties. What is that a ten million euros or more in 2020?

Ben: This is just insane, reading this. I mean, the average price per square meter, the per square meter price is 55, 800 US dollars. I mean I’m going to have to sell one of my two places I mean this is a great price.

Seth: Great time.

Ben: Well, I’ll keep the yachts though.

Seth: Say those numbers again because they didn’t, they didn’t really –

Ben: 55, 000 dollars per square meter

Seth: Ok so put that in perspective to me.

Ben: I don’t know you build a house in the US up here for 250 bucks a square foot. I means that 55, 000 dollars

Seth: 55, 000

Ben: I would say this is probably out of most people’s budget but that is some interesting news to own a place in Monaco at that price. It’s the most expensive place to buy a home in the world.

Seth: I wonder why it dropped so much, like 39% as far as the activity level, 39% drop of purchasing in a pandemic

Ben: Are you trying to allude to the fact that this might be a bargain time to buy?

Seth: I don’t know, when pandemic’s come around, and you know frankly folks I’ve never experienced one but I’m going to, I’m going to speak from a place that I might have. I think there’s a lot of places besides Portland, Oregon that I would prefer to live from this point and I do like Boise, Idaho, I like Montana a lot, you know, mountains are beautiful but id go sunny and warm. I think that’s that Barbados, you know Virgin Island thing that I might try to adapt to

Ben: Not a bad idea

Seth: Or Monaco

Ben: I think the thing is, with all these real estate articles, I think the real point is that there’s a change going on in society. I mean you know because there’s a lot you’re not going to undo from this, people have made life decisions to move and to work remotely or you know just to change an entire lifestyle and there’s probably a ton of people listening that are living that story right now and I mean that’s not going to change so your negotiation as people kind of go back to work, you know the office, people are, I mean, our nephew, my nephew visited us last week just to get out of the city and just have a place to go because he was tired of working, sleeping in his apartment, doing his work in his apartment. And he goes back and forth and just wanted a break from that, he’s like, I can’t wait to go back to the office. I mean and there’s hundreds of millions of people that feel that way. I know that.

Seth: I think a lot of those people that bought in the ‘burbs over the last year, as the cities reopen are going to start to realize, now that I can go down the block and go to my favorite place or you know do the things that I used to do, maybe they will move back. I’d be curious to see what happens in that real estate. I mean that’s to me more of an opportunity right now if you’re to try to take a look at where you might buy.

Ben: Well I mean you hear Fauci talking and all these different people are like, they’re talking about the next pandemic. I mean that’s their conversation. You hear Bill Gates laughing about the next pandemic

Seth: Well it would be good for his income.

Ben: Yeah its just ridiculous so I don’t think people are just going to go run out and sell there, you know –

Seth: He needs to write another book, he needs somewhere else to show up and say something

Dan: And more TV time

Ben: Oh gosh

Seth: I got your pandemic right here Fauci

Ben: But people are not going to just give up that, they bought as the ability to exit, it’s an exit story, it’s an investment in the exodus, it’s an investment in freedom, right? I mean that’s what people are saying, they’re like, I don’t want to be locked down in my apartment in the city again and I don’t ever want to have someone tell me to do that and if they drop the hint of another pandemic, I’m gone.

Seth: I think one of the things that you bring up is investment and we do happen to work in that area a lot, in investments

Ben: From time to time

Seth: But there’s different areas in different places in our lives that we invest and what we focus on a lot is the financial peace. And one of those things that becomes I think a challenge for people to navigate in purchasing a home, if that’s what it is for them verses say purchasing commercial real estate or investment real estate, is understanding what kind of investment happens there. Do I have a problem personally with over paying for my home, lets say that’s what it is or you know I feel really comfortable with my budget right here at this 2000 square foot home in this area or I could go 23, 24, whatever those numbers are, and pay a little more. Think of it in a 10-year time frame because this is where you are going to invest in your family, in life, and it’s a very different kind of investment. Try to, yes its good to get the buy, be able to buy low sell high, investment 101 probably, right? But it’s just a different classification and different kind of an investment and I think that’s one of the things we’re going to bump here in a little bit too.

Ben: Yeah, next on the list here we have an article and CNBC, “Bank stocks rise after hours as Fed sets date to lift buyback, dividend restrictions.” This is by Jesse Pound. Now this is very interesting, this is the kind of news we’ve all been waiting for on our side. I mean we’ve been long financials for what? 8, 9 months? Maybe longer?  And you know when they stopped allowing the dividend buybacks and the, I mean sorry the stock buybacks, that was a big deal. That’s a big deal, that’s actually what lifts a lot of stocks and their value, and I think you know this is one of the things that we’ve been waiting for to see, you know some real time horizon on what that looks like and they get into that, they talk about that throughout the article. On the announcement of this, this is basically the covid restriction they set in place and you know basically the second they announced this JPMorgan rose after hours by 1%. I mean this is a significant announcement and long-term peace to the crisis. When you talk about, I mean they note here in the article that the SPDR S&P Bank ETF is up 20% year to date, that’s almost a full quarter and that’s a ton of return in three months, something that is not to be looked on lightly. But you still look at some of these bank stocks and I mean I still think some of them are still pretty cheap depending, but there’s still a lot of concern to fish out like what’s going to happen. You know a lot of the sales of the bank stocks were a failure to pay on mortgages or rent or any of those things. I think Dan and I, we chat about that from time to time just kind of going through the different investments you hear on the TV, constantly talking about, hey, what’s going to happen to this real estate program or that real estate program and these are big concerns.

Dan: Yeah, I think quite a few of those banks never really recovered from the whole financial crisis of ’08 and have been to some degree undervalued since so I think that this added flexibility with the lifting of that regulation and coupled with interest likely moving up, it creates a ripe environment for the financial industry and for the banking business in particular.

Ben: Yeah, and I think you know there was some reserves that with [?] were put on banks that they had to have extra reserves, they had to hold onto extra funds, and they lifted some of those restrictions that allowed banks to actually spread out some of the cash that they had taken. Banks have basically been hoarding cash for about ten years. I mean that’s really where its been and its been a requirement that they hold a ton of cash because they didn’t want anymore bank failures but the release of some of these restrictions has allowed banks to spread out and potentially make more money. I saw JPMorgan, you know one analyst just raised the target price to like over 180 bucks a share.

I mean, people are pro on banks and I don’t know I’m really curious, caution beware because I wouldn’t just start shoving money into banks because you listen to our episode, but there’s still a lot of things to iron out in the real estate world and what’s going to happen because at the same time JPMorgan themselves were just announcing, I read it in another article, that they were going to downsize the amount of office space they have. You know which means if less people really do want to return to the workforce, though I think they are going to have some push back on that just from the staff, but if less people do want to return to the actual workforce there’s going to be more real estate on the market. And that’s always been the assumption. Which has been the decline of the banks because people felt like they were going to be devolved and that just has not happened. Not nearly at the level that they ever thought.

Seth: Yeah one of the articles that I took a look at was March 23, 2020. That wasn’t all that long ago but that’s where they started to kind of cancel the buybacks for pretty much any of the companies that are out there. And I was taking a look at the charts through that time and it was amazing to me to see the cancellation of buybacks, but then to see that the stock market went from that point forward this last year was incredible, in spite of that, that didn’t hinder a lot of what happened in the market this last year but the headline there is that cancelled stocks buybacks mount, they may not return for years, and here we are not even a year later.

Ben: Well the story could be that we haven’t seen anything yet. Like if you were to say, hey listen we are going to turn on all the buybacks back on with all these companies and it’s going to be permitted again and they haven’t been able to do that yet, we’ve rallied through something where stock buybacks have always been a big support for our market, I mean are we at the fledgling side of a massive bull run. Could that be the case?

Seth: Well the last one was the longest that I’ve ever experienced in spite of living through the nineties and that bull run. But it was the shortest bear market that we’ve ever gone into or been through with just, I want to say, can I say wicked? Since I’m over here in New England.

Ben: You can try its not going to sound good

Seth: It was a wicked run. This last year was a wicked run. It doesn’t sound as good coming from me.

[Laughter]

Seth: I’m so West Coast I can’t help myself

Ben: You know I think there are some really interesting points. I really do think that there’s kind of that unknown domain on the buyback issue, like I don’t think we know exactly what that does. I do think we’re going to have this kind of cusp event, I do think we’re going to hit some sort of max and a pullback, I think that’s going to happen. I think we have some time to go and I’ve basically said, that I really this is a summer, some time in the summer maybe august time period, that we’re going to see something. And I really think that’s going to happen for a couple different reasons, but one specifically is a lot people who kind of reallocated, repositioned, they were doing it many and June. They were saying these things are oversold and I’ve lost money here, I’m going to reposition and they’re going to want that long-term cap gains. You know that’s going to be some intentional stock movement I think.

Seth: And we did see an interesting June and August last year I think, where we had that pull back during that time. People sell in May and then they come back, and they come back and they buy in September, right? That’s the whole thing and a lot of people have followed that advice in their own personal investing.

So you’re listening to “Money on Tap”, you’ve been listening to “Money in the News”, and we are going to be right back. You can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. When we come back we are going to talk about investing through inflation. Folks this is going to be one of the things that you want to understand more as inflation works its way through, and whether that’s a true inflation, however you want to consider that. What you don’t want to do is you don’t want to sell in May and not come back for five years when inflation is down. You want to know to be invested, stay invested, and be long-term. We’re here to help you, listen with Brayshaw Financial Group and Money on Tap.

[Music]

Seth: Folks it is so much fun for us to bring you Money on Tap. My name is Seth Krussman and I am one of the hosts here at Money on Tap. I’m also a financial planner, that’s what we do, that’s what Ben and I do. And the fun part is we get to have this radio show. We talk about important things that we think you need to listen to and be aware of to help raise the bar as far as your financial literacy. It’s a big part of what we are trying to do here. The other thing that we’re doing here is, well, as financial planners we are welcoming you to come and call us and join us at Brayshaw Financial Group, experience what complete wealth management looks like. Lets take a look at all sides of the issue, get a three-dimensional perspective and put a plan around your next step. It’s so critical and so many people just leave this part out and then they find out later and go, “if I only would have known.” Hey, don’t let that be your story. Give us a call at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. If you have 250, 000 dollars of investable assets today our plan is free to you. We think it’s important for you to know the facts and have a playbook so you can have a successful retirement. Give us a call at 855-226-8551. Thanks for listening.

Now back to Money on Tap with Ben and Seth

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Seth: Welcome back to Money on Tap, you can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. Folks this is one of those shows that we’re going to have a lot of fun with. And we hope that if you made it through Money in the News you’re here for the long run and you’re going to learn about how to invest through inflation. That may not make sense at first, and what we mean is in and during an inflationary period. What do you want to be doing with your investing that’s different from where we’ve been doing lately?

So, Dan, you came up with some really interesting stuff, which is from one of my favorite people when it comes to investing

Dan: Yeah, so whenever you’re looking to get your arms around a trend or understand what might happen in the future based on what’s happened in the past, there’s few better to go to that Mr. Warren Buffett himself, who for those of us that follow the investment world, is one of those guys up on the Mount Rushmore of investing for sure, if not the very top of it. He’s the guy who has seen virtually all of it and found a way to make money every step of the way. So his advice is generally sage and as I said, when you’re looking at any particular set of conditions a good question to ask is, what would Warren do right now? And luckily he’s well published and there’s a lot of information about what he has done in the past and where he sees all the stuff moving forward. But, in particular, I found an article had him interviewed at a couple different points in time, talking about how he handled the explosive inflation through the late 70s, early 80s, which I was around for but not old enough to remember any of it. But we’ve all heard the stories about the gas lines and all those kinds of things where the consumer index just went right through the roof. And what his advice was is really two points I learned from the article, two major points. There was the focus on companies that generate cash rather than consume it, in other words companies that have already invested enough in their business and their products in development and their market are already established that they don’t need to get out into the marketplace and raise cash to do those things. And secondly, to look for companies that can increase prices and handle the increased business without having spent more money to add to that capacity. If you think of things like utilities, that’s a great example that, you know in an inflationary environment, keep in mind that they are largely funded through bond issues which would have already been secured at a lower rate, so if interest rates are rising they’ve already got the cash on hand to meet operation. And when you think about the product that they offer, things like energy and water and whatever it may be, the necessities, so if they need to raise prices it is very unlikely it would impact the demand whatsoever. So utilities are a great example of that. And there are lots of other industries that we’re taking a look at, that have those same traits. Really, they’re firmly established, their product is developed and marketable and they are able to raise prices without having to have a negative impact on the demand. And as I said a couple different industries we’re taking a look at, a couple investment opportunities, that I know Ben’s got a list queued up here that we can take a look at. But those are really the things that you want to look for when you’re trying to identify an opportunity in a rising interest rate environment.

Ben: You know I think about those statements and there’s some real, I mean just pulling out those pieces, I think what Dan’s done here is fantastic and I appreciate Warren Buffett for sharing that because I think there’s a lot of wisdom in that. I mean just understanding that in an inflating environment and if a company already has a business model essentially that is working, running, producing the information, the product, and you could buy it, you still need it no matter what the scenario is, its not like you have to innovate to get to it, right? And if you have to innovate to get to get to something, those rising rate are going to cost that company more and more money to get there and it may stop them from getting there. I mean that’s really the point I think he’s making, is that hey listen, we’re already at the end of the road, we’re already producing the television, we’re already producing the raw energy you’re consuming at your house, or the food or, we’ve already got the farm, you know those conversations, they’re already shipping it to you, so combating that issue is a great piece of understanding for investors, especially if you’re new to investing and you’re just trying to get into this. You say, hey I think the market is at a real all-time high; maybe something’s going to happen. We hear that conversation constantly, I don’t know that we’re quite there yet; I think we have a good ways to run before we see a pull back but with some of the dividend release we just talked about a few minutes ago there’s some real upside possibilities that could happen. But if you want to run to something early that’s ok too. You can run to value, we see people run to value constantly right now and people are looking for a yield, that’s a big conversation in the story.

Seth: Yeah, I think as Dan you were kind of opening up the conversation round, what did Warren Buffett do and what would he do again. And I think we’ve leaned on a lot of that wisdom and his experience through different corridors of investing. One of the things that struck me this last year is Warren Buffett doing some things that he said he would never do. And you know what did he do. He bought technology and he said he would never do that because he didn’t understand it. That was ten years ago, maybe he had some time and place where he was like, oh I get it now, and now he’s doing it.

Ben: We did a whole show on that. We talked about all the things that Warren Buffett, all the rules he broke.

Seth: Yeah, breaking rule after rule. These were hard and fast for him and I’m just curious enough, I guess in the discussion to say, what are some of the new norms that we’re going to see coming through an inflationary period? What we saw this last pull back, February and March, which was a bear market, some of the traditional trades that we would make that have worked historically, which would be some of those utilities for instance, they were no longer the rules to the investment world. We saw Zoom take off, we saw Amazon, we just saw different places that were now the recessionary trade of today. And I do wonder as we have this conversation, keep in mind that these are things we want to talk about and we want to think of because there are going to be some new places for us to go and consider in this inflationary period.

Ben: I think we need to jump in here though and define, you know I was always taught that how you language something is really important and I think we need to language the fact that there’s the inflationary trade and there’s the recessionary trade, and now I think we have the pandemic trade.

Seth: Ok.

Ben: You know what I mean? Like I honestly think, like breaking down the three items, because you’re right, who knew that Zoom was going to skyrocket and then they’re down like 30 or 40% year to date. I mean they’re making a huge hit. Does that mean that Zoom’s a buy? I’m not sure it is. But is it here to say? Yeah, it’s here to stay. So like that’s a great pandemic trade, I don’t know that it’s a recessionary trade.

Seth: Very true.

Ben: You know what I mean?

Seth: But we were in a recession. There was this recession, but it wasn’t a recession that was brought through the economy. It was outside that affected the economy the way it did so it was a very different place that we’ve gone through and inflation is a place that we haven’t experienced since, what the 80s? I mean we just haven’t experienced that.

Ben: When you have a 20% pull back, that’s when you go into a bear market, right. And so we had that event, we had a forced recession, which is really a pandemic.

Seth: Exogenic was the word I was looking for. Exogenic – from outside

Ben: Yeah I think that’s a great word for it. I think as we break through defining those pieces, it’s really important I think for people as we walk into investing because we do it automatically. We look at the events, we look at the circumstances, we look at the impact and we forecast, we foreshadow, we try to figure out exactly where people are going to move to to meet their needs, to then say, that need’s going to have a higher demand. We want to own those companies, we want to own that sector, we want to own that industry.

Seth: And you do it I would say this too, we do it in a way, and I’m going to bring in Tom Brady –

Ben: Is he coming in here today?

Seth: I’m going to bring him in right now. He’s going to come and talk to us about picking your spot and making the throw and how do you do it so successfully. And he just, it’s a second nature, he knows how to do it, he's done it so many times in the past he can do it blindfolded. And he's just the best at what he does, right. So it’s that muscle memory, it’s the rinse, repeat, when you're doing this all day long and throughout the week over years and years and years, the conversation we have comes to a decision much more quickly and an understanding at least much more quickly, where we’re setting ourselves up for what we’re looking for in the next week, two, three, to a month. Getting ready to pull triggers that might very well take you the next six months to a year to just even get to.

Ben: I mean our whole investment committee we sat down, we talked about if this happens or that happens this is where we see value coming into play. I mean we talked about that; we had this conversation literally two days ago. You know I think about going through those pieces and saying to myself you know, in an inflationary environment that’s really where we’re heading and you're convinced as a listener that’s where you're heading. And we’ve got some ideas for you. I think some people are doing it intrinsically; I look at some of the things that we’ve come up with and I think it’s happening naturally for people, you know inside all of that. Though I think this pandemic event, a forced recessionary event, has driven some of these actions but I think they’re the natural cause and effect scenario that’s playing into that, which is interesting. So, I'm going to break out with number one here, real estate.

Real estate is probably the top number item of almost any recessionary play. I mean it can come in a lot of forms, I think that’s what we detail as we were kind of breaking this out, right, we came up with a number of different pieces, but when it comes to real estate, well what are you talking about real estate? Maybe you’re buying rental property. What happens with real estate, you know, you get that fixed mortgage which outs you in one component that stabilizes the inflationary piece there and then you have a rental income that usually moves with an inflationary event, that continues to rise.

Seth: Yeah, so as inflation happens so does the cost of goods and services, rent being one of them that we talked about on the last episode, is one of those indicators of inflation so as that’s going up and the inflation’s going up and your rate is staying the same, as long as your cash flow is increasing while your hard costs have stayed static.

Ben: Yeah, no totally. What’s great about that is that your income is moving perfectly in the corridor of inflation usually. I mean you might be a little step behind if –

Seth: You got a rent cap out

Ben: You got a rent cap out

[Laughter]

Ben: Yeah, so that’s definitely one of them. But lets say you're not the buyer of rental property, you don’t want to be the landlord, you don’t want the phone call for the hot water tank or there’s a whole in the wall, or you know whatever the story is maybe real estate, real estate investment trust – REITS. The trade of REITS space is very interesting, its high yield, but then again there’s all this speculation about who’s going to rock out and win in this area and who’s the most vulnerable because when you start getting into, you know equities that trade inside this real estate space it could be multi-family, it could hospitality, it could be grocery stores, it could be –

Seth: It could be –

Ben: Malls

Seth: It could be well or mismanaged

Ben: Exactly. So you have that factor, even in a good sector you might get burned on. I mean infrastructure real estate has been an interesting component, I think, for years, I mean there’s a lot of real estate in that area.

Seth: I don’t want to talk about this next one but I'm just going to mention short-term loans secured by real estate.

Ben: The idea of leveraging your real estate to get some money out. I mean I’ve done that. I've looked at the market and I've said hey, at different times, I said hey the market looks low, I don’t feel like I'm getting the yield out of the bank, I’m going to take the money out. I mean rates have dropped. Not something I would recommend, it straight up is a very high-risk area. From a compliant standpoint we’re not even allowed to take money from those types of assets and reinvest

Seth: Absolutely not

Ben: Because they want to discourage that. But that’s an area and a place that people play in. I would not encourage that by any means but that’s definitely on our list. And then fourthly, buy a home, which has been happening and that’s kind of where I think that intrinsic events are just happening

Dan: Yeah, mortgage rates being where they’re at, especially if you were able to strike over the summer and even as inflation potentially sets in here; mortgage rates compared historically remain very low. If you find that opportunity, it’s a great investment

Seth: I love how that one happens without people even having to think about it. So you now if you’ve done that recently pat yourself on the back, you did a good thing for you and your family and, again that’s one of those investments that pays dividends in so many other ways other than the price of that home going up and becoming a different kind of an asset for you.

Segment two here that we are going to step into in a little is commodities. Commodities.

Ben: I like how Dan was knocking on this door, I like how Dan, this is a big Dan area

Seth: Alright Dan

Ben: This is a big Dan area

Dan: Yeah I'm the raw material guy for sure. Commodities are things, kind of leaning back into Warren Buffett’s point; they are essentials in a lot of ways. You know, food, healthcare, shelter, technology, which we can’t live without at this point, you know those are the types of things that in this world that we’re in we just need to have and as those prices increase, its not going to impact necessarily how much of any given one of those that we buy. I mean for one thing we’ve been looking at some home improvement projects and the price of a two by four, its $7 around here, that’s inflation for you right there. So we see that those types of price increases are making their way through these types of investments, you know maybe tis the time to be in on it.

Ben: Yeah, I think the building material thing has hit everyone because I think that’s something that everyone can relate with because we’ve all been at home saying, alright honey we’ll get that project done now, you know, and what happens? You look and the price and your like well you know we were going to do that bathroom for around five grand, twenty grand, whatever. I was talking to somebody out in California and they told me it was going to be 40, 000 dollars to redo two bathrooms. That’s crazy. But you look at that and he’s like the building materials, they are literally charging a flat rate to the people, saying this is whatever the materials cost, we’re doing that at a standard markup. Because they’re moving so fast, we could give you a price and we could put 20%, or whatever they put, on top of it and then next thing you know they are losing money.

Seth: And all that quickly. Folks you’re listening to Money on Tap and you could reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. We are talking about how you can invest through an inflationary period. I think we are going to jump back into some commodities when we do come back, I got some questions here looking at the commodities guide, and you can reach us at 855-226-8551. We’ll be right back.

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Ben: Call us today at 855-226-8551 and get your free consultation with Ben Brayshaw or Seth Krussman or any one of our partners and find out what’s going on in your plan, your estate plan, your financial plan, or what your planning at all if nothing. Get it fixed, get it right, get it done today. Give us a call at 855-226-8551

Now back to Money on Tap with Ben and Seth.

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Seth: Welcome back, you're listening to Money on Tap, you can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. I want to take a second here to thank the podcast listeners and radio listeners as well. There’s so many people out there that you could be spending your time with. The fact that you're here with us today, we value that and we want to make it worth your time, worth your while to stay here and come back again and get this information, take it into how you eat, sleep, breathe your personal finances, ok. That’s what we’re all about her at Money on Tap; we’re going to give you some great stuff.

Again, we’re in a segment here where we are talking about investing through inflation or inflationary periods, something that hasn’t really been apart of the conversation. You could go back to that ’08 influx of capital when the Fed came out and started buying, these buying bonds, and how did they do that to create a bunch of equity in the market. That was one of the, feels like that was one of the last conversations we had before we started having these trillion dollar buyouts that have been coming through the market and how does that affect us, as far as inflation, because you have a bunch of money out there that’s been printed that’s going to affect the overall outcome of what the value of that money is in relationship to the goods and the services that we buy. So how do we start to think about what we’re doing today in our investments to kind of counteract that? We talked about real estate, if that’s one of the things that you're interested in or that you're wanting to walk through, we do this a lot with our clients, its one of those places where we just love being apart of, being active or passive investors in this area. And commodities, this is one that doesn’t come up so much, but Dan Michelon here is taking it on the head and he's going to go ahead and grab more of this. And the question I have for you Dan is this, you talked about food, healthcare, energy, building materials, and building materials is one of those, raw materials is one of those places that just that’s what commodities is, but you didn’t talk about pork bellies. And I was wondering when were you going to bring in the darn pork bellies for us to get that in, because how is that a commodity today? And then would you please talk about technology. Tech is not something that people relate to what a commodity is.

Dan: Well I don’t think previously but before we get there I do have a special affinity for bacon so I appreciate you bringing that up. You have to purchase the pig farm but that’s high on the list. But technology I think, it is something new to think of as a commodity simply because we have become to dependent on it and I think the pandemic kind of forced our hand with that. And for anybody that’s doing the homeschooling routine or the work from home, your Internet connection, whether its 5G or whatever the next thing might be, it’s a critical aspect of living life these days, so I think everything that goes into that, the ability to stay connected is essentially a commodity now.

Seth: Yeah, I would totally agree with that, I mean just looking at the concept of not having Internet, I mean in todays world the way things function we have become so dependent on it. How is not having a cable connection an option?

Dan: I got a 15-year-old who was down a cell phone for about twelve hours and that was a crisis. That was a full-blown pandemic level crisis.

Ben: I’ll show them a crisis

Seth: But when’s the last time you walked off and left your cell phone some place and you had to deal without it

Dan: A few minutes of panic and the sweats kick in; you know who can find my phone fast enough. Scary moments

Ben: My 10-year-old daughter, Sadie

Seth: Coming back to one of the original conversations that I do want to have it kind of accepting the new normal and I think technology being apart of the commodities conversation is a new normal. We can take a look at 2000 where, you know, the tech bubble happened, the market just was wiped out and that was a recession that we went through in that period, that was a bubble though the markets. Very different than what we’ve experienced this last year. But is technology still in the place it was in 2020. And we do take a look at things in the market that might cue us up to say well we’re getting darn close because the earnings, the Ford earnings on the market right now are getting pretty darn close to those 2020 levels and that’s one of the conversations people are having out there like, oh this is the next bubble, we’re here. And fear of the market because it’s going to collapse. Those are some of those things that people are looking at and making those statements based off of, but I think it is a very interesting place to consider

Dan: Well I think one of the things that’s different now verses then is that back in the early 2000s everything technology was growth, right. That was that style of investing, that was that style of stock, you know since, technology has become so engrained in all that we do and how business works. There are technology companies that are value companies these days. And those are probably the ones that fit into this inflation inverse or ride through this inflationary period, is companies that fall into that category, the technology companies that provide us the infrastructure for what we do. It isn’t necessarily the software, the new gadget, it’s the components and it’s the things that are critical to build the technology and make sure that everything works between us at home and on the couch and getting that order in to Amazon

Seth: So would Amazon be a, one of those technology companies that you would say would ride through an inflationary period?

Dan: Well you know its not a component builder its, at least in my house it’s a necessary evil

Seth: People proved it, they were like, I’m not about to give that up

Dan: Half way through the pandemic my kids started calling the Amazon guy uncle. He was a regular. He was a regular

Seth: That’s so sweet. Cooking him dinner, have him sitting down. Were you one of those families that were putting out the basket of snack goodies and the thank you message for the delivery drivers as they came by? That was like a Facebook fad I saw there for a little bit

Dan: Yeah we weren’t there we just had the kids waving out the window

Seth: You probably would have had me showing up at your house, “hey thanks”

Dan: Could have been

Ben: Gold and precious metals. This is one of those places that has been historic in terms of recession and if you were to take a look at that ’07, ’08 period, that was really I would say the last big boom that we saw in the gold, precious metals market and that was the devaluation of our market, our dollars, and potential inflation that was coming in through the printing of the money and the money systems. I want to call that something else more technical, but its money systems right now. But that’s what gold just went through the roof and this is one of those places where people, I've had the conversation over and over again, my dad one of them actually that brought it to my attention. This is a high-risk place to be in first and foremost. Commodities can be as well.

Seth: Commodities are high-risk because they are cyclical

Ben: Right

Seth: So if you get in when, hey listen we are at buried in the middle of an inflationary event and commodities have skyrocketed, you know, and you're like oh everyone should own commodities, by the time you hear it as a listener you're probably too late.

Ben: You know I think that’s the thing, right. By the time it gets down to the common person of, hey this is how you should invest; you probably missed the boat, right? Or I think precious metals come into play, we’ve talked to clients about this pretty regularly, and I mean I always get that, hey end of the world conversation. I tend to just tell people, hey listen we’re not really trading the gold space, the silver space, I can’t remember a time that we intentionally put a gold ETF, I don’t know of a time. I don’t know of a time that we took a gold or silver platinum position in any portfolio we manage

Seth: We’ve looked at it and we kind of go, “meh”. We’re ok without you

Ben: Right. And does it mean that it won’t exist and we wont pull the trigger and no one will know about it

Seth: But we can hang onto this position for 10 years plus without it ever moving or doing anything for us

Ben: Right, you could sit there dormant forever. I think what’s interesting about gold and precious metals is, I tell people there’s more of an intrinsic value to owning it. Like if you really have this kind of doomsday personality, you’re saying hey listen I really think there’s a crisis coming, if there is a crisis coming and the whole stock market collapses and all sorts of craziness happens, they’re not going to send you the gold. Ok? They’re not going to send it to you. So if you really think that gold is a bigger story, bigger conversation, then I would say look for maybe a physical asset purchase. That might be something. Invest in a safe. That might be a direction to consider. As for whether or not we are heading to an inflationary event and you want to buy gold, you could do that. I wouldn’t personally put it in our portfolio now; I’m not looking to make that call. If you think inflation is here for a short period of time and gold is going to skyrocket and you're going to make some big money off of it, great. I know people who have made money off gold. They’re usually very advanced traders. They’re playing lots of different positions in gold and silver. It is an inflationary investment but you have to be really certain that that inflation is coming and you have to be really certain its going to spike heavily.

Seth: I feel far more confident going into like the utilities and having more liquidity in an area like that, collecting a dividend in the process, you know there’s the Verizon –

Ben: In an inflationary event

Seth: Yeah

Ben: Absolutely. You made a great point the other day and I was thinking –

Seth: I make then everyday, all day

Ben: Yeah ok, well this particular one happens to stand out to me I guess then. When we were talking about the inflationary world and we were talking about what the government is doing and telling us its 1.68% inflation and kind of going through that and then when we made that comparison about how if we took their standards in 1980 and we took their standard in 1990 and overlaid them on today, we’d be somewhere between 5 and 9% inflation. Using their math, their standards, that were prior to this. But that would ultimately impact every item that they stand by. So I mean if social security is going to get an increase, they are going to get an increase based on what their inflationary levels are, so if they want to reduce their increase to social security to reduce their liabilities all they need to do is say, “let’s make inflation lower”

Dan: Some more of that new math

Ben: Yeah. New math, I know. So that’s a really very interesting piece and I think that, you know gold and precious metals, those are very good conversations for that, but that’s a bigger gamble than I think, in your point Seth or Dan, than energy or even healthcare. I think with the aging demographic and you know, 30% plus of America’s going to be over 65 in the next twenty years. There’s going to be some huge healthcare demands, and that means big money for pharma, that’s a big issue.

I like number four, we’ve chatted a little bit about this. This is kind of funny. I mean investment (?) I don’t even know how to get into this. Its investment (?), it was the fourth item we came up with and what’s interesting about this is that not everyone can go out and buy the Mona Lisa, I mean that’s not something you can do, but now you're looking at these NFTs, stocks, ETFs and everything else, its like these non-fungible tokens, buying a piece into these rare video clips or rare tweets. I mean I don’t know but they’re talking about these things being pieces to offset that, there’s lots of kind of this world of new perceived money that’s kind of becoming this potential inflationary conversation. I don’t know how that pans out. I don’t know how that works, I mean, its hard to go out and say, I'm going to buy this piece of art and someone is going to want to buy it from me later on for more money.

Dan: It’s even harder to fathom wanting to buy a tweet or a highlight from a sporting event. I mean its just really hard stuff to fathom. But there’s a market there

Ben: Dan and I talk all the time about how we used to collect baseball cards. And Dan worked at a baseball card shop and I can really appreciate owning that card and other people can own the same card, but there’s a limited quantity of those cards and there’s a physical, tangible asset you have. It’s hard for me to understand the tangible nature of feeling like you own something when you own a tweet.

Dan: It’s just out there on the Internet for anyone to view. At some point you have to extract value

Ben: I understand why people want the rights to our first show; I mean I would make that an NFT that seems like a good move, right?

Dan: Something for the Smithsonian

Seth: I have one more thing to say about gold and if you wanted to debunk it –

Ben: What a downer, you didn’t even play into it, come on

Seth: I’m so behind the times here, I’m still stuck on this gold thing and just was like I got to it. So if you were to take a look at the value of gold in 1986, 614 an ounce

Ben: How much?

Seth: 614 an ounce. Now 1725 is approximately what this is today. Now if you take a look at that and what is that return over that last forty years, it’s like a 4%, 4.7% return on that. And that right there is, I think, is where you might go into, does this beat the inflation piece, right. But you can also take a look at that in comparison to markets and say it would have been way better off in other places and I think that’s where people have this mystique around gold, that it’s the safe thing and they just need to understand, no its volatile. It goes up, it goes down

Ben: It’s super volatile. It’s super volatile. That’s good, thanks Seth. We have a couple other things here, we are running out of time but you know probably the one thing I think we can end on today, even though its on our entire list, and if you are looking for more information feel free to give us a call we’d be happy to dive in that, but tips. Tips are something that –

Seth: We give them all the time on Money on Tap

Ben: All the time. But treasury inflation protected security. The tips are, those are the bonds you can buy from the US government that basically they’re inflation protective. So you collect your yield, lets say you get 3% and if inflation rises 3 or 4% they are going to mitigate that by inflating the value of your bond which then inflates the distribution you have. It’s a very common purchase item for people who are looking at the bond world and are ultimately saying, I'm really concerned about an inflationary event. You know if you do buy a bond and its not inflation protected that’s a big problem. If you have a bond paying you 3% in a yield but inflation rises 4%, you just lost a 1% return. Your bond is going to be devalued because new bonds will be selling for more money.

Seth: Well, I would say yes but right now if you were to take a look at the yield on your five year, it’s a negative 1.77, you're going to have to get a thirty year to get a 0.1% yield on any of those. So good luck with that one, but traditionally, yeah that would work. And what to avoid, bonds I think are one of those places that we want to just say, stay away. High PE stocks are another place that even now I would say probably, with as crazy as crazy as the market might be in that whole realm, just probably not the safest play to make.

Thank you, you’ve been listening to Money on Tap. You could reach us at 855- 226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. You can also find us at Facebook, we’re at /3Dinvesting. We are also on Twitter at @bfg_llc and as always you can also find us at yourmoneyontap.com. Thanks for listening, thanks for liking our podcast, we appreciate you and we can’t wait to make it a great day and a great like with you here at Money on Tap.

[Music]

Money On Tap Show 166

Seth: Welcome to money on tap!

*music*

Seth: Money On Tap, your personal finance headquarters where we bring out the professionals experience and some fun in what we call three dimensional investing utilizing insurance, brokerage and fee-based planning. that’s what we do on this show, we look at all sides of the issues and we bring a fully independent planning perspective to the table. You can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com, operators are standing by. Ben Brayshaw and Seth Krussman are here today for you, standing by for all of your money questions. Nothing too big, nothing too small right? We love just getting the questions. Everybody is entitled to have their experience in life.

Ben: I love some of the phone calls and conversations we have with people, its really very interesting.

Seth: The best ones I think for me, usually you start out like with that I’m sorry for asking this question or like people feel like they should already have an answer and place for something they’re about to ask.

Ben: That is the standard.

Seth: Yeah.

Ben: That’s the standard in every conversation I have with people walk through the door. They think they’re walking in with some sort of oh I wanna do all this. If you had all the answers, you wouldn’t be walking through the door and that’s totally okay and people don’t and…

Seth: Hey that’s me at Home Depot. You know, trying out…

Ben: That’s me in everything else.

Seth: Stuff.

Ben: That’s me and my children. I mean we just don’t know what we don’t know and that’s okay. And I think the thing is is I love the fact that our disposition is to educate and empower you and so we want you to ask questions because the more empowered you are the better investor you are the better person we can work with. If we have to start from the ground up that’s okay, but we want to get you to the place where you say that makes sense, I want to do that, I think I can do this. Or this is going to fit my need, I want you to be confident in the decisions that you’re moving forward with.  That’s the best kind of investor we can have. Somebody who goes home and doesn’t sleep well or it’s bothering them – that’s not a good fit and that’s okay. It really comes down to really just finding something you’re comfortable with and I think with today’s show, we’re going to talk about IRA’s, we’re going to talk about you know lots of different pieces to it. I mean we were just joking around, tips and tricks or whatever you want to call it, it’s not. But it’s a conversation about retirement and it’s the IRA retirement story. What is the one you’re working around and what are questions you would have and here what you’ve got to watch out for and we have ten of them today and I think were gonna have a great show because I think the conversation around it is so much bigger than ten. But we were talking about it and going through it like oh we’ll just come up with ten.

Seth: Well, it started as twenty.

Ben: Yes, that’s true, it started at twenty, its down to ten and all the other fifty will be buried in some sort of the conversation so if you don’t have all the answer afterwards, that’s okay.

Seth: Before we get into the meat and potatoes of the show, were gonna take a minute to talk about some money in the news.

*music*

Ben: Well, you know, we’ve got a kind of a big deal conversation going on with money in the news today, Seth. The big news is that Bernie Madoff died at 82, he was the mastermind of the giant Ponzi scheme that destroyed millions of lives, his family and other around him. That’s really sad.

Seth: Yeah. It is. You know we’ve done shows on the Ponzi scheme and now people would say it is no longer recognized as the Ponzi scheme it’s a Madoff scheme, you know if you wanna go down that road with it, that’s fine. Either way its a sham and I know when we are having discussions with our clients, people are sitting down with us and they want to ask is our money safe? Basically what they are trying to ask is is this another Bernie Madoff? And I mean we laugh at that because, thank god its not, and what have we done here at Money On Tap and Brayshaw Financial Group is, you know, we’ve got Pershing that we’re working with and Sage Point Financial as our broker dealer. These are all places you could be assured we’re not printing statements on a 1980’s printer and sending them to you.

Ben: I know, what’s really sad about this whole thing was that we’ve created different walls to kind of alleviate who you’re speaking to to remove that question or doubt. Like people don’t make cheques payable to Brayshaw Financial Group, we’ve made it that way intentionally and people made cheques payable to whatever Madoff Securities or whatever he was you know, I mean whatever the name of his company was. But I mean he scammed everybody, he scammed banks, he scammed big movie stars I mean you name it. Gosh.

Seth: Nobel Lauteate, Elie Weisel. One of the people of note, Kevin Bacon, a lot of people. We’re talking about charities, as they dug deeper into the Madoff scheme and it was spanning over 15 different countries, there was a lot of charities that had given money, there was a lot of other funds and hedge funds that had given money into, for him to work with and it was massive. Nothing that has ever been seen before and Bernie was this legend. People forget that, he wasn’t some guy that showed up on wall street and was like started you know churning out a scheme. He was there for so long and he created the NASDAQ, you know. He was one of the innovators in electronic trading.

Ben: Oh I know. Wasn’t he the chairman of the board, I think or something like that or was on the board of that? I mean he understood the rules, built the programs, built the rules around it and how to do it so he knew best on how to innovate fraud in that arena, and I think that’s really a scary thing. I mean sometimes the closer you get to you know you get to that stuff the easier it is to create fraud. I think we you know I have clients that you know have experienced fraud in the industry, who have been part of Ponzi schemes and you know those are those are kind of pick up where you got hurt and move forward kind of scenarios. And even to this day they still are always kind of like that hurt that burn, its sticks with you forever and these people lost billions of dollars, but I think I think they’ve been able to recover basically 14.4 billion of the 19 billion in principle. Which sounds good like hey listen they only missed out on what 4.6 billion dollars of recovery.

Seth: 75% of it has been recovered right?

Ben: Yeah. But people thought they had about 65 total billion in all their accounts

Seth: It’s a close to a chapter and its one that has completely changed so many of the ways that the SCC investigates or goes into and looks into financial doings. You know its really sad how preventable it was because you know what really what it came down to was there was a room under lock and key in his 3 floors that he was taken up in the Manhattan high rise there. This one room where it all happened, billions and billions and billions of dollars and when asked about it he said you know he’s poo poo the investigators the SCC investigators that were coming through kind of doing their typical rounds and the just overlooked it.

Ben: Basically Madoff plead guilty in 2009 to fraud, money laundering, perjury and theft. His son well its his dad sat him down and said to the family the money is gone. Its all been a big lie and that was found in the truth and consequences book that he had written, the autobiography. In this tragedy is horrible, and you know I’ve, you know Seth has an auditor you know doing compliance work myself you know having done all that stuff what I think is probably the most common scenario that people get kicked off I always seem to hear the event beginning with a recessionary period, a drop in the market, that they’re afraid of losing clients and that happened for them and Madoff recounts back in the 1990’s and having seen this stuff actually having worked on a lot of things that involved you know the discovery of that stuff in the past and different areas. Its usually people are just afraid of losing clients, they had a pullback or a loss in the market and they’re not fun conversations to have with people I mean hey the market pulled back on us last year, we were able to recover and those things are good and we went through that process but when you have big things you’re afraid of losing big things and that is the temptation that some of these people are really to deal with and its, its hard, its hard to deal with that stuff. But you know I used to have a lawyer friend of mine that used to say if you have bad news get it out fast and I think that’s the biggest thing is that don’t spread it out, don’t sugarcoat it just get it out and he wasn’t man enough to do that and now you know he died in prison basically without his family I mean one of his sons died of cancer was at 48 years old, another one took his own life I mean they claim his wife cries herself to sleep still for the pain that he’s caused people and she had no idea this was going on. You know sins horrific and it comes out and  its bad when it comes out and it effects a lot of people and that’s a sad day.

Seth: Yeah, hopefully we never see anything like this again and we can just take a look back and say wow what a lesson that has been learned and hopefully the people that were effected have recovered and are okay, right. Our thoughts and prayers are with those who suffered through this this crisis. You guys that’s gonna do it for us on Money in the News, we’re gonna take a quick break, we’re gonna be back with the IRA mistakes that hopefully you never have to make after especially after listening to the show today. Well be right back, you’re listening to Money On Tap.

*music*

Seth: For a number of our listeners they have a lot of questions and you might be one of them. Today were just offering what we call zoominars, webinars over zoom meeting rooms where we have top experts, social security, estate planning, and financial planning experts for you to speak with, do a private consultation that way today. We’re also having webinar based zoominars where we’re gonna have multiple groups where you can be part of that and enjoy that as well coming up here in the new year. Give us a call at 855-226-8551 or email us at info@yourmoneyontap.com to schedule your zoominar.

Now back to Money On Tap with Ben and Seth

*music*

Ben: Welcome back you’re listening to Money On Tap, you can reach us at 855-226-8551 or email us at info@yourmoneyontap.com. Folks this is one of those shows that we’re gonna have a lot of fun with and we hope that if you made it through Money in the News you’re here for the long run. IRA! What are we even talking about? You guys are already not making sense to us. Do I have one or do I not have one? Okay so, money kind of works like this right, there’s are a couple of different buckets that you can have your money in. One called qualified and the other one we call non-qualified and believe it or not you’re already familiar with one of those buckets real well and that’s your savings account, that’s your checking account, that’s your house, that’s taxable, that’s what we’re talking about when we say non-qualified, so there’s that bucket of money over there. This other bucket of money we talk about all the time is qualified money and qualified means 401k, 403b, IRA, Roth IRA. So these are the things were gonna talk about, primarily we’re going to spend our time talking about IRA and a Roth IRA okay. And if you’re wondering well why would you even mention qualified as a 401k because its all qualified money, it all qualifies and that’s under the tax code.

Seth: You know I think the thing is a lot of people use the conversation on pre-tax but not all qualified money is pre-tax and Roth IRA falls underneath that, same as the Roth 401k, those are after tax dollars that grow tax-deferred and tax-free and they come out 100% tax free and that included the growth. So if you put $10,000 $20,000 in your Roth, whether it’s a 401k or an IRA, you’re gonna pay taxes in the current year okay and then as the thing grows, lets say that thing is $100,000 someday or $200,000, well that entire sum is 100% tax-free when you take it out. It’s a phenomenal vehicle, it’s a wonderful planning tool and when accessed correctly and properly, you know, used in certain, there’s times when you wanna be careful when you’re doing Roth or Roth conversions. But we like to talk about those thing because these are strong opportunities that when the time is right, it’s a great opportunity. I’m gonna talk about one client who did one thing that I thought was interesting today and we’ll get to that with Roth conversions but with the IRA’s with the qualified, that’s all those pre-tax dollars, that’s all the money that you put in where you’re either taking, you’re taking pre-tax dollars is taking in or youre taking, to be complicated here after tax dollars and putting it in an IRA and then getting the tax money back when you file your taxes.

Ben: In the form of a deduction.

Seth: Exactly.

Ben: So it turns out to look and smell like pre-tax money, so lets just call it that.

Seth: Or if you’re in the 401k world, if that’s your qualified money bucket you’re contributing to right now, the pre-tax would be the it would be a reduction of your income. It never becomes taxable, its goes straight into the 401k, your income gets reduced and so the difference there is that the IRA, it becomes income and then it goes into the tax code and you deduct it off the backside.

Ben: To make this more complicated

Seth: That’s for all our wonderful listeners out there who are like alright you lost me already.

Ben: Heads spinning.

Seth: That’s okay, but there lots of different types of IRA’s.

Ben: Oh boy

Seth: Oh boy. Your SEP IRA’s and simple IRA’s, which are not simple.

Ben: Which ones the best one?

Seth: Right exactly exactly, so we’re not gonna get into the details of the different types of plans today.

Ben: Well we are gonna talk about that idea of ones better than another right, because hey they should be right, one should be better than another.

Seth: Well one would be more suitable for somebody versus another. But I think the thing is is that you know as we go through these 10 points of the things to consider when it comes to your IRA or your retirement plan and all the different things, we’ll talk about, they’re pretty much gonna go almost directly across the board right and so we have a couple we’re gonna talk about specifically IRA’s only and then Roth IRA’s only so that’s like the traditional IRA or roll over IRA or things like that like all these different things we’re talking about. So if you have questions we understand, give us a call.

Ben: Some of the call we get are hilarious which are great, I love the fact that people are just like engaging us, its great, we have people call in giving us suggestions on articles and show topics, its fantastic.

Seth: Yeah or telling me not to say that or I didn’t like that part and even those are a lot of fun too.

Ben: I have to disguise my voice sometimes Seth when I do that so its hard

Seth: Yeah its fun to hear men from across the office, hey why don’t we get going on this, we’re gonna have a bunch of fun and we’re gonna run out of time if we don’t we’re gonna make some sense through this and if this is a first time listen for you, we’re glad you’re here, hold onto your seat, its gonna make sense and you can go back and listen to it in a podcast, you can come back and grab these bits and pieces. The thing you really wanna focus on at this point is just listen, try to be open, try to listen, try to apply if you can to yourself what some of this means and come back and do it again and come back and find the next episode because we want you to have this empowerment around, again this is your financial journey and the more that you can take ownership of this, the better the experience is gonna be for you, the more positive the outcomes are gonna be, the greater the outcomes are gonna be so no matter where you’re starting, there’s something or if you’re experienced or not, there’s something for you here today. And with that we want to jump into number 1 – waiting till the last minute to make your IRA contribution.

Ben: What? That’s a bad idea, bad idea.

Seth: You could miss the deadline, that’s happened

Ben: I cant tell you how many people sent it to us that day mailing their tax return, we send it up and its I mean and right now with the I mean if you’re counting on the mail to be on time you are gravely mistaken on that. This is not a delay scenario anymore.

Seth: Now one of my jobs ive had in this industry was a prior life in this industry was taking these checks that would come in, you know pick up the mail on a daily basis and basically cashiering these checks and these were not small checks for some of these plans. But you know some of them were just like their annual contribution, but we would have some of these checks coming through a month after. And it was the most it was the craziest thing to have to sit there and watch the mail for darn near 2 months after the deadline which has been April 16^th for quite a while, not this year right, April 15^th April 16^th its moved around there a couple of times but this year we’re gonna look at May 15^th.

Ben: Its May 17^th actually this year, I mean its normally obviously its all, everyone know its normally April 15^th but the fact that they have these the last few years we’ve kind of had this rolling past the weekend scenario so.

Seth: Well the rule I just wanted to say is this is as long as you have that check posted  like get the stamp, the date of whatever the last day is to contribute, it qualifies as it comes in the door so it was just a whole kind of a fiasco and a hassle to try to work out and most of the time there’s no reason for it. People are busy and its not what they’re thinking about and then realize oh my gosh I gotta do this now and you don’t have to, you can make this contribution well you can make it anytime throughout the year.

Ben: Yeah. Waiting the last minute I think the thing that goes to my mind when I’m thinking about that is just simply the inability to make money on it. I mean you’re here you know throwing the money in in April but where was the other three or four months you know I mean were you making the money in the current year for the previous tax year I mean some people that might be the case but don’t let the money sit in the bank get it invested

Seth: I was just glad you didn’t user the example of me waiting until the day before thanksgiving break to turn in my paper to History 401 Latin American civilization course that I stayed up for 3 days finishing. Procrastination folks it was that you don’t have to, you’re gonna be able to get a far better return if you get the money in the market than wait. That time value on money is a huge piece.

Ben: Yeah I think I think the thing is that getting your money in, getting it working for you, moving it forward is really really the key you know and that’s I think the number 1 focus. When I think of number 2 and talking about making Roth IRA contributions even when you make too much money is a conversation or question we have by a lot of people right. Listen I make too much money, id like to do a Roth I don’t qualify for it.

Seth: Oh well that’s an open and shut door. Sounds like it.

Ben: Sounds like it yeah no exactly and I mean I think the thing is is that a lot of people don’t realize is what we call backdoor Roths, there’s you know rolling over other IRA funds you know in doing a conversion. Those are all pieces that you can do and I say backdoor Roth and people say what is that? Well that’s when you just literally make a contribution to your IRA. When you don’t qualify for an IRA contribution you’re not gonna qualify for a Roth contribution so what the government does is they hey listen we’re not gonna let you take that deduction. They let you stick the money in the IRA and it grows tax deferred but you’re gonna have an amount of money that is not deductible. That creates a complication. Now some people wanna do it just to get some people do that with an IRA and I don’t understand why when you really break down the math and I can make a case for it in almost every instance but they put the money into there and say well I’m getting the tax deferral on this piece and im in this really high tax bracket and you know I look at someone whose paying you know 37.6%, maybe some state tax too so lets just say they’re around 40% just round it up there you know. I’m thinking about this and saying to myself if you’re making a non-deductible IRA contribution why wouldn’t you just convert that  right to a Roth.

Seth: So you’re telling me there’s a chance?

Ben: A small chance

Seth: I have a chance. Yeah, it’s a, there’s okay so at a glance right that might make sense what they’re thinking and we it does I mean there is logic there is reason we get it, but there’s so many different ways to work with money that you’re in these IRA’s or even outside of an IRA to accomplish that goal, its just looking at it from a different way. What Ben said is hey go ahead make that non-deductible contribution because mean if you make a contribution at your current tax rate and at your income and everything, its gonna be non-deductible, there’s no way you’re gonna get a deduction on this money but why not flip it into a Roth once you  do it. Which would then grow, still grow tax free, but then come out the other side tax free.

Ben: And you know I’m gonna say this sound very simple and it is very easy I mean we all of us do this all the time for clients. The thing is is there is a very kind of like red flag yellow flag maybe its more of a yellow flag id say it’s a yellow flag conversation where I was reading an article about this and I’ve seen it in a couple of places where the basically the doing the non-deductible IRA contribution and then immediately doing a conversion with the intent to do a Roth contribution when you’re not really supposed to has not been challenged back by the IRS yet. So I say that to buyer beware because that is something that is really concerning because you don’t wanna get caught off guard and find out hey listen the IRS determined that if you made a non-deductible IRA contribution and then converted it to a Roth in a single step then the question would be did you ever really intend to make a non-deductible IRA contribution?

Seth: So what would you do?

Ben: So this is what I would do. What I would do is I would focus more on Roth conversion conversation right, I mean the president is a lot of people have old 401k’s okay, and I would probably not steer someone towards ever doing a non-deductible IRA contribution because there’s so many complexities, there’s issues about you know pro rata conversions if you have multiple IRA’s and some with non-deductible and you just can never get rid of all of it, its really it becomes a pain in the rump you know just to manage it honestly. And so I would highly encourage everyone out there don’t do a non-deductible IRA contribution and leave it in your IRA because it is an absolute nightmare. But, and until you’ve really done it, do you realize what a nightmare it is. So CPA’s will be thanking me for this on this podcast and radio show. What I would tell people to do is to focus on maybe taking an old IRA and doing conversion pieces each year you know and sit down with a financial planner, give us a call, figure out how to do an IRA that might qualify in your income bracket, maybe you’re self employed and you should be opening a SEP or simple IRA or 401k for your business, give us a call, set those pieces up and then maybe look at converting some old IRA funds. That’s they best way because honestly no matter what you do, whether you’re converting or making a non-deductible IRA contribution and trying to do a backdoor Roth – its still gonna be the same tax bite. So if you have that I would look at that as an alternative. That’s really a key for a lot of people to understand that just getting more money into your IRA is not always good. So here’s my case, here’s my example of concern right – so lets say you’re in a 40% tax bracket and you put you know your 40 years old, you put 50 grand in there you know it costs you $20,000 to do it okay that 50 grand is 25 years is worth $250,000 okay. Well if it cost you 20 grand $20,000 of taxes to have $50,000 in Roth funds that are now worth 250 you really only paid $20,000 in taxes on a $250,000 asset. Now that’s somebody that’s in the 40% tax bracket and I’m really surprised that a lot of people don’t look at it this way because age and growth have a lot of factors in this and that’s less than a 10% tax on the overall asset. Now I’m pretty sure considering all the I mean I know im going on a tangent Seth and you’re letting me rock on this but you know I’m pretty sure out tax rates are gonna be a lot higher in 20 years, I think they have to be. I don’t think we can write $7 trillion worth of stimulus and not pay that back in some capacity even if we’re not in a full gusto pay it back but we got a national healthcare system, we got debt and we got all these things coming. We’re gonna see some real expenses in our taxes and that’s a concern for me.

Seth: One other thing I might say on this is if it’s a big enough concern connect with a tax attorney and there may be the possibility of getting a determination letter prior to making any of these things and once you have one of those in place there’s no way they can come to you and say oh we’re gonna you know change the ruling on this piece. And that’s something we don’t really dive into if you need some referrals or a name we can go ahead and try and get you connected.

Ben: You know Seth, I’ve talked to a number of CPA’s about this and I know you and I have chatted about this, there’s a lot of mixed opinions on this and the reason I only say this is because there is no determination by the IRS. You know and I think its all gonna look at intent. I mean if you were to do a massive IRA contribution then slap that thing into a Roth, the IRS is gonna say hey look at me like we told you you cant do this you make too much money like that’s not something I really wanna legally pay for and I think that’s what a lot of listener want too. So I think that if your non-deductible IRA contribution was done in good faith and converted and one of the article I said was converted over a period of time or converted at a later time instead of in like in its immediate form.

Seth: Yeah the window needs to be longer than a couple of days.

Ben: Even the same day you know its like people are doing that like instantaneous moments so that’s where I would just I would flag some caution because I don’t want listeners to think that doing a backdoor Roth is rock solid as it sounds by a lot of people but I would say its not impossible.

Seth: So folks we got caught up on that one a bit. Gifting out of your IRA directly. So that may not be something that is in your vocabulary even is gifting out of your IRA or not gifting out of your IRA and what are we talking about here? Basically when you’re gifting out of your IRA and lets say you have a non-profit that you are wanting to give to okay so there a couple of ways that you can do that. And one way is that you can go ahead and receive those funds yourself and that’s an indirect well you  basically get the income or be reporting income on your IRA as your traditional IRA income ordinary income and then you would be sending it off to your deductible contribution towards whoever you want to benefit there okay they have to of course be qualifies under the tax code that way as able to receive those and able to be a deduction for you. Well you’re gonna pay tax on that. So one of the things that we talk about this a lot with the RMD’s the required minimum distributions to happen at age 72 with an IRA is having a strategy built around that so that you're giving those contributions directly over to have the check it's written straight from the wherever your IRA is at it goes straight from there over to the organization so you never even receive the funds. And what that does for you is it never becomes a part of your income never becomes a part of your tax ability. So it's a far more efficient way for you to be gifting especially gosh we love charitable minded people and how can we help you be more efficient in doing that.

Ben: Yeah and it was with you know the Trump tax cuts that this actually became a much more popular way because of the increase in the you know like married filing jointly went from an automatic $12,000 deduction to 24,000 that you just got for free you don't have to do anything.

Seth: Right and try to get enough deductions written up within your giving to

Ben: Your charities, your heath care, like all this stuff was really really hard to get over 24,000 so  this is a huge issue of just so simple its so easy right? And you just used to save yourself some simple tax dollars. I tell people we could set that up like if you tie the church you can set that up automatically.

Seth: You can

Ben: And just be done with it. You never have to think about it.

Seth: And if you get the gratification out of getting the checkbook out we understand, theres no reason that you cant write the check, just don’t put it in the basket.

Ben: That’s horrible, okay. Number 4 – self directed IRA’s are a good idea. This is one of the areas where I think there’s a misnomer like hey I can buy gold in a self directed IRA, I can buy real estate, I can do all that stuff. You know this is a very dangerous area, this is taking on a level of risk that’s just abnormal for most people and honestly I get I have questions for people who you know if you’re dealing with inflation risk and you want to get real estate, you want to get money out the market like I can see that being a play but you’re taking on a whole nother level of risk in real estate and self directed IRA’s, which s the primary use for those things. But I mean you’re talking about liquidity risk you’re talking about the value risk of real estate, you’re talking I mean there’s just so much beyond that just rental risk, all of those pieces, a whole different piece to do it. But I will tell you that I did have a client come to me who wanted to do a self directed IRA’s for some real estate and when they did the self directed IRA they expected they bought a big piece of land, they were looking to subdivide it, very interesting and I said to him I said listen we think we have some buyers for most of this land right off the bat like we think well make some substantial money and I said well you know what you guys should do when your retired I said why don’t you do a Roth conversion before you buy the land and open up a self directed Roth program and that way when you sell the land the profits will go back into your Roth and they were like wow that’s a great idea. So you know those are things you can do is be clever about how yoyre working through some of these things. Now the bad downside if that is if you did the Roth conversion, paid the taxes on the entire converted amount, which you have to pay out of your own pocket so they have to come up with the money on their own, so that could be 20 , 30, $40,000 on a 100 grand right, so then if the real estate declined in value and you sold it you would have actually lost money because if it was still an IRA you’d only pay taxes on the value of what you. So right you have to really see appreciation in value for the Roth to be a conversion, like I for instance back in March, April and May I was converting certain stock assets that I owned to a Roth because they were so under valued. I was like I’m not selling this company, this company is gonna come back and its gonna be great, but I’m gonna convert my shares to a Roth to take advantage of that and those are types of areas where you can look at that piece but self directed IRA’s are not always a good idea and its super super dangerous but something we have conversation about regularly.

Seth: Not contributing to a retirement plan for your short term issues okay so whatever is going on in your life right now that’s delaying you from starting to make these contributions to your IRA, stop it. Make that a commitment just like you make whatever it is that’s important to you significant to you I don’t care if its Starbucks or your coffee or if its your favorite whatever, you know, I know, we have these places that we just we make concessions okay don’t do that with this money. Make sure it’s part of the like the first part of the year, you have a plan of getting that money out of the bank and into a retirement program okay, that’s gonna help you long-term, you’re gonna be so grateful down the road that you just didn’t delay.

Ben: You know that’s a really good point Seth I mean you know so much of this world is have it now have it now and they’re forgetting about later, that’s a problem, for sure.

Seth: What do you think about triggering a taxable event on an indirect rollover? I get that question a lot because it's just not understood how IRA money or qualified money goes from qualified to qualified and the question is, is this taxable? Is there going to be some kind of a taxable event if I move money from the 401K into the IRA or from one IRA that's here over to the IRA that’s there and that, if you're going direct, which means you're custodian to custodian okay, there's companies out there that are going to send you a check, but on the check it's going to have the new custodians name on it for benefit of you and your IRA, and sometimes will put your new account number on there and that kind of stuff, so there's no way that you could even take that check and go cash it. You know, because the biggest risk you have there is the check just doesn't arrive and they issue a new one that's not a taxable event. What could be a taxable event is if you take receipt of funds from your IRA and you say just go ahead and write me the check for $100,000. Well, they're gonna go ahead if you're under 59 and a half, they're going to go ahead and usually take out about the 10% penalty on that. And then you're going to go ahead and say, well, I'm going to roll this over into my new IRA, but you're going to be responsible for that 10%, right?

Ben: If you don't do it in that 60 day time period and you don't get it in there, you're done. Yeah, you know.

Seth: There's no 61 days.

Ben: No, there’s no 61 days and trust me the 60^th day’s too late. But the other scenario is if you wanna if you did do that like lets say you had a had a roll over and did it indirect, you had them send you the check, you move that money in, lets say its 20,000 and then say hey you know what hey Ben I got another IRA out there and its like 5,000 bucks or 10,000 lets say its $10,000, you say I wanna do that too and you take the cheque in in the same tax year and then you wanna write the check into your IRA. Even within the 60 days that’s a taxable event. You’re only allowed to do one of those in a calendar year, lot of people don’t know that and that’s a big problem.

Seth: Folks you’re listening to Money On Tap, you can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com and we are talking about you know some of the tips and some of the tricks around IRA’s. it’s a huge part of most peoples retirement and the retirement conversation. Hopefully you’re getting a ton out of the conversation today, it may not all apply and that’s okay but you’re sticking around, you’re learning and you’re listening and we’re gonna be right back. You’re listening to Money On tap.

*music*

Seth: Folks we have a lot of fun doing this show, Money On Tap and Ben and I have been financial planners for years and years and our goal here with you is to bring you into the room, have the conversations that we have, we think these are critical conversations for you. But we understand this is a limited space and what wed love to do is to open the doors to you with us at Brayshaw Financial Group  so you can experience what it means to have three-dimensional planning in your life. Let's take a look at all sides of your situation, your scenario and see how we can put together the best plan possible, taking into account your risk. How much can you have in the market? How much do we need to have set aside and doing different things for your life? That's what we do, as planners, how we engage with you and we welcome you to do that with us. You can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. Now if you have $250,000 that are investable assets today our planning is free to you. We want you to have the playbook to have a successful experience in retirement. Give us a call 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. Ben and I welcome you to Brayshaw Financial for complete wealth management.

Narrator: Now back to Money On Tap with Ben and Seth.

Seth: Welcome back, you’re listening to money on tap, you can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. Folks if you're listening to us via podcast, we appreciate you being there with us today and going back through some of these episodes that we've created for you, and having some fun with this on them and the likes and the listens, they'll help us and we appreciate that. If you're listening to us on the radio today thanks for sticking around. You know this is this is an hour of your time that you can spend doing whatever you want and the fact that you're here with Ben and I today, that means a lot to me and I appreciate it. Yeah, so we're going to get rolling on the rest of these things here before we run out of time. We are on number 7 - not properly noting your beneficiaries. And this is this really is one that we see day in day out. Its happened so often that people just don't really understand how the estate works or how beneficiaries work and what the benefit of an IRA having it, having a beneficiary and there is. And I know some people very well that still will not make this change, and that's fine if this is how they want to do it, but a lot of the times people would just say my beneficiary is the estate. Well what that will do is is that will put that money that could have passed probate back in to probate. For basically whoever you have as the executor is what we call over call them in Oregon is executor of the state, the person that's overseeing the estate in those decisions to allocate those money. However, those things have been decided in their will, or it's a judge that will say, OK, this is what the will says. This is how you want it broken up in your will and you know given to your beneficiaries. That way, either way, that gives an opportunity for creditors to come after that money and possibly limit the contribution or the gift of that, a beneficiary could receive after you pass away, and that's what it beneficiary is here, it's listing who you want to receive the money that is leftover in your IRA after you pass away and a lot of the times that looks like a the primary beneficiary and most of the time that is the spouse 100% and then after that there's the contingent beneficiaries that are you know if something has happened to the spouse - who does that money go to next? And then there's even this other level of per stirpes, which so many people just go I don't even know what per stirpes is or just they don't think it's important, but that's that other level of planning where you just want to have or ask the question, what does this even mean? Why is this even important? And it is, it is critical it could save so much money for your beneficiaries and so much time and hassle to try to fix that they don't have to figure out and you don't even have to worry about it because after you're gone or if it as somebody passes on. It's such a sad thing to see families not be able to come together or to have friction in places where they just they don't have to. It's an unnecessary battle folks, and so that's why we would say make sure your beneficiaries are who they are, you know who they are, you know how you want those allocated. Understand what person are based mean. We're not going to get into that, but these are the things you want to be having the conversations around and making sure that you've just checked the box.

Ben: You know Seth that's great advice and something I would definitely say is so underwhelmingly educated in so many ways. Number 8 - don't double up on tax shelters. This is a simple one. This is

Seth: It is but it's one that's so misunderstood.

Ben: Oh, I know, I know it is. It's like municipal bonds that are tax free. Most likely have zero belongings inside a tax deferred event. And I mean if it's already tax deferred, your IRA or your Roth IRA or whatever buying municipal bond, for instance, that's tax rate isn’t gonna do you any good and you're usually getting a lower rate than regular corporate bond in the same risk level. And it's the same difference except for you're getting a lower rate now. I could envision in a warped period of time where maybe, you know government bonds, municipal bonds are more relevant because of a say a pandemic or something you know something crazy where only the government you know the governments the only financially backed scenario and that's what you want to have. I guess I could fathom that, but it's never happened so.

Seth: There's always the get.

Ben: Yeah, I would say at anytime so

Seth: I never want to say never. If Somebody's talking to you about a tax benefit or a tax shelter, and that happens to be money that you have in your IRA that they're talking about using that direction. That's when you have want to ask the question you want to make sure that you get clarification on that.

Ben: Number 9 – don’t forget about your spouse. No, that's not what I meant to say is don't forget about your spousal IRA. You know so for all of us men or women who have a husband or wife at home, who are not working at a job that pays them income, you are eligible to do a spousal IRA with the income limits associated with that, and that would include IRA or Roth. So just because you may not have an income paying job, but you may have the hardest, most thankless job of being a mother or father at home, you still get to do a retirement plan.

Seth: You qualify.

Ben: You qualify if you have to take the income of yeah, for you qualify for the qualified plan, that's for sure so that's something that seems to be overlooked quite a bit. I had a family member who is like oh, you mean I can? I mean, and I'm like you didn't know that you know so that's what brought this to light and you just presume that whoever their filing taxes with them saying, hey listen, you know you should be making another IRA contribution or a Roth.

Seth: Yeah.

Ben: For your wife.

Seth: Oftentimes we would receive one person that's kind of in charge of the finances, that's what that's where they spend time, and I don't think it's intentional piece. Most of the time it's just they just didn't know that they could be doing this, but you occasionally, you might see people that have really only taken care of themselves now. And in an unfortunate way that that could work, it will. Actually, we won't even get into that. That's just there's there could be some side effects there. Some ways that that works out that would not be very good. Healthy finances, healthy, healthy interaction around that. And understanding is what we want to have. Last but not least – I don't like IRA’s, I like Roths is what I like to call this. What should I do? Should I do a Roth or should I do an IRA and it's there's this great debate out there and it's one that's fun to get into for sure. But the question really comes back to what's the right thing for you to be doing are you is it better for you to be doing an IRA or is it better for you to be contributing to an IRA or is it better for you to be contributing to a Roth. And we've done the math on this, of if your tax code is the same today as when you retire, is there a benefit to doing one versus another and the straight answer on that is folks no, the net will be net zero as far as any benefit, as long as the tax code today or your tax code today what you're paying on your ordinary income is going it would be the same.

Ben: Yeah and I think that's the thing, right? I mean, nobody's sitting around saying, hey, we're at some of the lowest tax codes in history, and I expect that to stay about the same after $7 trillion stimulus package, so you know I really just I go back to the example that we talked about earlier and this is what I mean no pain, no gain, right? I mean, so pay the taxes. I think I think Roth has a great opportunity for people I feel like I'm going to get to my retirement years and say why didn't I do more Roth? Why didn't I convert more of these stocks like their high now but you know what where they're going to be in 20-30 years I mean, they're going to be a lot higher probably. Why did I convert those too? You know, I think there's going to be a lot of Roth regret. I really do, I think it's going to be I think people get counseling over it. I think there's going to be some real concern.

Seth:  When we talk about the tax trap with with qualified money, but everybody's just been stacking money in their 401K and not putting anything in the non qualified side or in the Roth side and then they're stuck.

Ben: The younger you are the pretty much no brainer decision it is to do as much Roth as you possibly can.

Seth: Yeah.

Ben: I mean no matter what your taxes are unless you just can't afford to pay the taxes. Like if you can't pay for food, groceries, utilities in the apartment or the house, then that might limit your Roth scenario, but I mean at that point in time I really don't think that you're going to be making that much of an IRA contribution that's going to be offset that much that its going to make a difference. So if you're really that strapped, you're probably not even making an IRA contribution. But if you had 40 or 50 years to  a future distribution on a contribution you're making now, what you're going to pay on taxes on 6000 bucks.

Seth: Yeah.

Ben: You know, even if you're in the even if you're in a 50% tax bracket, you're going to come up with three grand. If that 6000 bucks in 50 years is worth $200,000 I mean you're not going to be crying about the three grand you paid in taxes.

Seth: So can I say the argument on the other side of this?

Ben: Please.

Ben: Okay, a bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush my friend. And if you know what the code is now and you're going to get the if you're gonna get a discount on that money today, and I can't tell you that you will tomorrow, might as well take it .And that's one and that could be one way that you think about things in terms of. In what we do, I would say go with this idea. OK, we talk about it in so many different places, but there's a there is a model of diversification in what you have in the market. OK, we're not going to be 100% in this one thing here, right? Because that's not diversified. We want to have.

Seth: And put all your money in one stock

Ben: In gold

Seth: In gold

Ben: Robert Kiyosaki. No I did not. I have yet to do that or tell anybody that they should do that. Yeah, put it in the mattress, bury it in the yard.

Seth: You don’t wanna just tell that to somebody as a joke and let them leave the office?  I’m just kidding

Ben: Let me think on that for a minute, we’ll get to that next time. Yeah, so there’s this idea around diversification and I think people seem to understand that when we’re talking about inside of your portfolio. Lets try to be diversified. But there’s other areas of your life and I think one of these is you know time work-life balance, we hear that a lot. That’s a model of diversification, but in tax code we started the show talking about non-qualified and qualified and Roth being one of those places being considered qualified where the distribution where a) the gains and also the distribution of those moneys are tax free. Inside your qualified IRA or your qualified traditional 401K. The benefit is on the front end where you don't pay taxes putting the money in that grows tax free, that's great, but the distribution is taxed as ordinary income. And a non qualified money that's taxable is taxed along the way. Now you buy a stock today, as long as there's no dividend on that stock, it's just you buy the stock alright, you create basis at let's see bite at $100 less a 20 years down the road you sell it at $200. That $200 is now taxable on the sale of it at a long term capital gain tax rate, whatever that is down the road. OK, so we've talked about three different versions of taxes there and that is diversification in the code of your money your tax code of your money. So get diversified, you can do both you can you can make your Roth contribution this year as well as your traditional IRA contributions. Don't think it's one or the other. Don't get locked into that thinking. Stay flexible with us here folks. That's going to do it for us today Money On Tap, we hope you've enjoyed the journey. There's so much to talk about in the world of financial planning and the world of personal finance and we just still can't cover at all at least not today. But yeah, we appreciate you sticking around. Your listen to Money On Tap, you can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. My name is Seth Krussman and once again, Ben Brayshaw. We're here for you as financial planners at Brayshaw Financial. You can also find us at Facebook we’re at \3D investing. We're also on Twitter at BFG_LLC and as always you can also find us at yourmoneyontap.com. Thanks for listening, thanks for liking our podcast. We appreciate you and we can't wait to make it a great day and a great life with you here at Money On Tap.

DISCLAIMER: The views expressed are not necessarily the opinion of this radio station and should not be construed directly or indirectly as an offer to buy or sell any securities mentioned herein. Investing is subject to risks, including loss of principle invested, no strategy, product, material or tool mentioned can assure a profit or protect against loss. Please note that individual situations can vary, therefore the information, products, materials, or tools mentioned should be relied upon when coordinated with individual professional advice. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results. This show may be subsidized in whole or in part by a product sponsor or issuer. Securities and Advisory services offered through Sage Point Financial Incorporated, member FINRA, SIPC and a registered investment advisor. All other services offered through Brayshaw Financial Group, LLC are independent of Sage Point Financial. Sagepoint Financial and Rayshon Financial Group do not provide tax or legal advice. Main offices located at 116 S River Rd, Bedford, NH 03110 and can be reached at toll free 855-226-8551.

MOT Show 164

Seth: Welcome to MOT. Money on Tap, your personal finance headquarters, where we bring out the professional’s experience and some fun. What we call 3-dimensional investing, utilizing insurance brokerage and fee-based planning, that's what we do on this show. We look at all sides of the issues and we bring a fully independent planning perspective to the table. Welcome to Money on Tap. We're so glad to have you aboard today. You can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. I’m in New Hampshire right now with Ben Brayshaw, in our new studio.

Ben: I’m super excited, this is the new studio, podcast, we’ve spent so much time and effort in filling this out. I think of companies who helped us here locally. There’s been a lot of people involved in this. This is great. Good job. Thanks Seth, everyone who’s involved.

Seth: Take a look on Facebook. Like us on the podcast venues, love us, because we love you. Pray for me, folks. I really need it right now if I’m going to be here a week with Ben. For both of us. You’re listening to Money on Tap. We are going to be talking about breaking free of mindsets. This is going to be a show for the ages. It’s about inflation. That’s what I come back to, it’s a lot of what we engage in is mindset driven. How do we get out of the mindset that we’re fed this information, buying into it to get out of that mode, take control of your finances, make a difference in you and your family’s life today. It’s time for Money in the News.

Ben: First up today, we have the WSJ coming to you again. Stocks waver as banks warn losses. This is a big deal; it’s been in the background for a little bit. There’s been some headwinds that have driven the market turbulence we had. A lot of our listeners probably aren’t aware of the back end pieces we have going on. What’s interesting is there was a lot of selling going on last week. The turbulence going on was weird. What was going was a complete bending of all of the assets of one major firm, which is Arkagos Capital Management, run by Bill Wangs. They had to sell 30 billion holdings last week. 30 billion. What I found was very interesting about this was that while this was happening, no one’s disclosing this stuff. Viacom was dropping like a rocket ship, and they were a good sized holder of that asset. We’re seeing pushed selling, which is causing—I don’t know what was going on at the time. I was saying what the heck is happening in this market? You and I both remarked at the resilience that existed throughout the entire market cycle. Looking back at that, the massive selling, overleveraged, overweighted, they had some holes in it. Goldman Sachs stepped in and said we need to liquidate these assets, but the stock market held strong. Viacom had a massive hit, but the market was substantially good, considering.

Seth: It’s hard to believe managers are going out of business in the market we’ve seen. It reminds me of my contractor buddy that was building in 2000 and managed to not be successful in that time. I don’t know, it’s just one of those things that it was remarkable to see 30 billion assets get sold. Banks were taking a huge hit in terms of those assets. It brought me the question that so many of our clients have asked: why are we investing in financials? Why are they doing so well? They shouldn’t do this well when people aren’t paying their mortgage, or there’s all this money coming into the market in different ways. It’s a really fascinating thing to look at. Last week, it turned around. The market was great, it broke some previous bias it had shown in the weeks prior to that. It’s a tale that we’re telling right now. Do we think financials and banks are a place where a lot of money’s coming in and doing well?

Ben: I do. We’re holding the financial space. I think there’s more to come. A lot of these companies, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan, some are high, but some are not where they used to be. When you look at the bailout dollars, and what people are paying, people that don’t need the money that are still paying rents, leases, mortgages, those things are coming through pretty strong. We’ve seen phenomenal real estate programs report way stronger numbers than expected. I’m shocked on some of them. In industries and demographics that we would expect them not to be strong. We wouldn’t expect them to be at the levels of reporting. The banks are gonna continue to have strong numbers. This scenario has upended major financial issues in some banks. There’s gonna be hiccups as we go through this. When you have a major catastrophe, there’s always going to be the unwinding of bad programs, assets, management, this is a story of bad management. It happens to be 30 billion dollar bad management. Considering the fact we didn’t have a massive dump in the stock market and we’re hitting all-time highs after the fact.

Seth: We’re talking about how the market is at an all-time high, it’s just a sneeze away from pulling back 10-15% and probably turning around and going the other direction.

Ben: Volatility isn’t going away.

Seth: If you’ve been profitable, go ahead. Do that. That’s what it’s all about, but get the long-term, the big picture. To get to the next turning point, Cathy Wood, she’s done it again. If you don’t know her, you’re gonna. Ark is her ETF that she’s headed up and been the lead on and done really well with, is turning into the private sector for space.

Ben: This is really interesting. This is their 8^th ETF. They’re trying to touch on the space culture. I thought this was interesting because this ETF has 6% of their holdings in another ETF they have. It’s very interesting, it’s the 3D printing ETF.

Seth: I guess that’s how you build in space?

Ben: I’m not sure the entire correlation, but there is some correlation they’re driving. They have the traditional, Virgin Galactic, Boeing, Lockheed Martin. They’re all over the place, yet they’re right on target. I’m curious what the overarching theme is where they’re buying the ETF. I’m wondering about fees, double dipping, I’m not sure what the details are. We have to dig through the launch on this thing and understand.

Seth: Past history is not an indication of future value or performance. When you look at Cathy, what does she do. Innovation is one of her funds. Last year she had 16 billion in inflows to that. She did it in this disruptive technology, and that’s the idea that’s transcending from one idea to another. The SpaceX, the space ETF of the private companies involved in space exploration. Pulling those pieces together, it’s a disruptive technology.

Ben: I like how she’s targeted futuristic sectors. Space is definitely it. Fintech, all those things. They’re always looking at those pieces. Innovation did 150% last year, but it’s down 9% this year. There’s pros and cons, but what I really like about the strategy they focus on—they’re always looking for the big names. Just the pullback of a good company that they believe in.

Seth: It sounds like you’re saying value in a different way.

Ben: I’m speaking about the asset value. I love value, everyone knows I love value.

Seth: In a couple shows, we’re gonna talk about investing when it comes to the 330 million in AG population—where do people go?

Ben: I think there’s gonna be a strong push for that. Here’s a woman who understands value in a couple different dimensions.

Seth: We’re gonna be talking about inflation. So many different things around this piece here. We can’t wait to come back, spend time, and uncover the belly.

Ben: I like the 2-part show we have going here. It’s just gonna be 2 shows: inflation and how to combat inflation in the investment world. I like that. I like giving people solutions.

Seth: You’re listening to Money on Tap. You can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com.

Ben: If you’re listening today and your questions are outside the box of state, financial planning, or any of the pieces we’re talking about, don’t forget Brayshaw Financial offers auto, home and business insurance. We have a department that handles all of that for you. Give us a call at 855-226-8551 or email us at info@yourmoneyontap.com.

Seth: Back to Money on Tap with Ben and Seth. Welcome back. You’re listening to Money on Tap. You can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. This is a debut for us. A debut in a way that you don’t realize. There’s a brand new studio, and Ben and I are standing within a meter of each other. I hope to sound much better than I typically do. We’ll have some fun in the studio. You know when we have fun on Money on Tap, that usually means, let’s talk about inflation. What can we do to bring this brand new studio to life? If you’re not impressed by turning the dial, just wait. We’ll get there. It’s a tough topic when we take a look at what is inflation? It’s a general increase in prices and you fall in the purchasing value of money.

Ben: I.e., milk costs more.

Seth: Or, if you’re lactose intolerant, almond milk costs more.

Ben: I think everyone knows what inflation is, but how is the stimulus money flying everywhere, how is it going to work?

Seth: We feel inflation every day at the store, and basically, that prices moved up, but my income didn’t.

Ben: That’s one thing that really drives the conversation. If you walked on the road and said we’re taking a poll of what inflation is, how it’s made for you, etc. we’d have some crazy responses, some would be accurate, and others would be way off. But if we said to someone, did you know inflation, the cost of living, continues to increase on you? We’d get a lot of yeses. If we have them that front running line, everyone would understand. I think if we gave them the view of how skewed everything has become, it would show what inflation is in today’s world. I’m kind of excited because we’re talking about inflation and how that’s gonna impact.

Seth: That’s why I come back to the idea; do we know what inflation is? I think there’s the information we’re handed, and there’s the stuff we know already.

Ben: We’re totally fed something that I’m not sure is fair, accurate, honest, clear, concise, maybe even misguided at times. Maybe they are trying to be accurate. I know you’re rolling your eyes. But when you’re really trying to evaluate, are we getting a fair shake at evaluation, and we’ve talked about it on the show report inflation, and they talk about it, saying we’re not gonna include it this year because it had such a rapid increase. They were talking about oil and gas, this was Obama-era. The following year, listening to the same report, and they said we’re still not including oil and gas because it’s too inflated. You can’t pick and choose what you do and don’t include.

Seth: Or if you’re in a pandemic, maybe you should be more careful in picking and choosing.

Ben: Exactly, it’s like they pick and choose when it’s not necessary.

Seth: Anyone who played basketball, who likes cherry picking? Hanging out underneath the hoop? That was you. We’d actually been trying to get to this show for 3 weeks. What took us so long, maybe 4 weeks. You threw out there, let’s do stuff on annuities. To do that, we had to do 3 shows on annuities.

Ben: It was pensions, buyer beware, you’re in some deep doodoo and you need to have conversation with somebody. Then we went into annuities, a long-term pension. Now we’re in inflation because you know what? When you have a fixed income, what’s your biggest fear?

Seth: Inflation. That’s why we’ve got this other topic that we’ve done a few shows on. One of them we called the Black Hole of retirement, which got more listens just because of the title. People were disappointed when they got to that show.

Ben: I’m gonna go with the show was just that good. The show was that strong, that nothing – I thought the title was horrible, and people wouldn’t listen. As we dive into inflation, there’s a lot to this story. When you really break it down, it just comes to your pocketbook. This is a personal conversation and I know the government tries to make it a corporate conversation where they’re looking at the world as a whole, but the truth is, you’re the person, you have to walk into the store to figure out how to pay for groceries.

Seth: That’s the simple conversation that everyone should pay attention to. The larger corporate conversation of everyone, what is the gov’t dong and what are the levers back here getting pulled to accomplish different things? That’s where we hope to get to some of that info. Hopefully, it’s in a way that you can grab it, put it in your pocket and take it to the water cooler this week.

Ben: Before we do that, we’re gonna take a quick trip back in time. Seth, bring us into 1980.

Seth: What was happening with us in 1980? I remember Mt. St. Helen’s blowing. There was a lot going on in the 1980s. people were buying things. Things they were buying were houses, cars, milk, and all of these things we considered essential at that time. Ben mentioned we moved off of those as critical parts of inflation and there’s a reason for that. We’ll get into the dark underbelly of inflation. What was the cost of living? A new house in 1980 was 68,714. The average income was 19,173 a year. A new car was 7,201. The average rent was 300 a month. First of all, if you could get in here, if they were accepting – they’d have to accept everyone to take me, but Harvard was only charging 5,300 a year. A movie ticket was 2.25. gas was 1.19, and believe it or not, in the late 90s, early 2000s, I paid less than that when we were going to school. .69 was the least I paid.

Ben: We were in school in VA. For the NE listener, it was probably 1.10 here.

Seth: I remember feeling robbed at 1.30 in high school. So bad. Then there was the first class postage stamp, which I didn’t realize there was a first, second or third class. 0.15.

Ben: I remember when it went to 0.19 and everyone was like, really? Do you remember that?

Seth: No. You must be so much older than me.

Ben: I was just thinking about Harvard and the new car purchase. If you’re looking at a new car and you’re thinking to yourself I’m gonna buy an SUV, you can buy a suburban for 70-80k, depending on what you’re looking at, it seems like it’s still in line.

Seth: If we were to say the rate of inflation is 3%, the goal isn’t to yell at the feds right now. Let’s say inflation was 3%. You’re going to be looking over the course of 36 years. These calculations are a little rough and a couple years old at this point. We’re looking at 25k. that’s about 3%, does that make sense? The average cost of a car is right around 25k.

Ben: I guess. You can buy cars. I’m trying to figure out, I’m not sure what the average cost of a car would be. Do you count used or not? Brand new?

Seth: It’s brand new. Right now, average cost of cars is 30-35k. that’s more of an average cost. That’s a little over 4%. Wouldn’t that be nice if that were the factor we were using and the factor the gov’t was using, that 2%? This is that part that we know intuitively, we’re getting lied to and we don’t know why, but we know it is.

Ben: No one can really conceptualize. Inflation is at 1.6%. the Fed came out and said we feel like inflation needs to be at 2%. They said that a few different times. With an average of a 1.68, according to their numbers, they have to get it up there. They’re acknowledging they’re gonna push inflation. The question is, how is the printing of all this money, these trillions of dollars of stimulus going to impact that? Is it gonna be that inflation is gonna go to 5 or 6 and they’re gonna be throttling it back, or throttle it up?

Seth: How do they do that, and why?

Ben: This is the thing, right? When you talk about what inflation is, you made a great point. The average cost is 4%, based on the automobile and what it did, all the costs, so forth. What’s really scary to me and really concerning to me is that they have all sorts of inclusions and exclusions. I talked about the oil and gas. They talk about everything under the sun. they’re thinking about what the average cost of an airplane ticket would be, they’re talking about the average cost of various grocery products and certain staples that you need. What I think is really interesting during this pandemic is that they’re still including the average cost of an airplane ticket. I’ll tell you I went to FL, a month or so ago, had a good time. My round trip ticket was Spirit, I’ve never flown Spirit before. It was a $36 round trip ticket. To FL. It was the bag cost and so forth that become problematic.

Seth: You can’t mail a letter to FL for that much.

Ben: You can try to send it FedEx, but it won’t get there. The thing about this is that they’re including the cost of air travel. They’re trying to entice people to travel, and I’m like, how is that correct? When you really think about it, people aren’t spending money on airline tickets and they’re going down. Is that making inflation inappropriately, misleadingly brought down?

Seth: Here’s an example. If you were to say the $300 rent in 1980, if you were to put that number in at the current rate of inflation as an average rate of inflation, the rent should come up to a little under $1k. if you take a look at the rent in Boston for a 1 bedroom, it’s like $2k. Portland, 2 bedroom, $2k. I don’t know if they’re doing rent controls, or if anyone has to pay rent during the pandemic, but that’s one of the ways we can take a look at this. First of all, we’re gonna get frustrated, because I can’t seem to find anything on the list of what we typically buy. I know you gave a great example of an airline, but that’s just not where – that’s a pandemic price.

Ben: But this is what they’re calculating it with. One of the things we need to focus o was that the supply chain was so heavily impacted that when you breakdown what’s going on, there was a loss of consumer expression, because prices were skyrocketing on specific goods, but that’s what people were buying. People weren’t buying tickets; people weren’t buying gas. The oil prices plummeted to -$2 a barrel.

Seth: It made food delivery affordable for anyone who was driving that as a first or second job. How many college kids were employed because of this?

Ben: Now we have this demand. I think of these supply chain spikes. You have massive spikes that ride against the cusps of food, supplies, everything you need, but a big chunk of the core things they use, CPI, inflation—

Seth: What’s CPI? Have we talked about it?

Ben: I was just making the point; all of those pieces have no meaning. They have 0 value in the calculation, and they’re only skewing it to make the number lower. I’m surprised a lot of people aren’t talking about this. I look at 1.6% inflation, I guarantee you I’m paying way more than 1.6% increase in food bills and the items we buy in the grocery store this year vs. last year.

Seth: How many Americans are living on the social security welfare system, and how many are going to be in the next 10-20 years? There might be a reason that some of these numbers are skewed. You’re listening to Money on Tap. That was such a bright and shiny idea we got to talk about there. If you haven’t picked up the phone to call us at 855-226-8551 or reach out at info@yourmoneyontap.com, what we’re looking for at this point if you can figure out a place where you can pay $300 rent, let us know. We’d love to transport back to the 1980s time to pay that rent, $7,500 car, let us know. Ben found the 1980s version of an airplane ticket and he shared it with you. You’re listening to Money on Tap; we’ll be right back. Folks, it is so much fun for us to bring you Money on Tap. My name’s Seth Krussman and I’m one of the hosts, and I’m also a financial planner. That’s what Ben and I do. The fun part is we get to have this radio show and we talk about important things we think you need to listen to, be aware of and raise the bar of your financial literacy. The other thing we’re doing here as well, as financial planners, we’re welcoming you to come call us and join us at Brayshaw Financial Group. Experience what complete wealth management looks like. Let’s look at all sides of the issue and get a plan around your next step. It’s so critical, so many people leave this part out and then say, if only I would’ve known. Don’t let that be your story. Give us a call at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com.. If you have $250k of investable assets, give us a call. It’s free to you and it is worth your time to pick up that phone and give us a call and discover what complete wealth management looks like. Ben and I are excited about the opportunity to partner with you and give you that financial plan that’s going to make the next step so much better understood and get you where you need to go. Welcome back, you’re listening to Money on Tap. You can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. Now, I know I said Ben might not be here, he might be answering the phone calls that are online right now, getting back to some emails because you can’t wait to have your questions answered about CPI, right? The Consumer Price Index, and why would we even wanna talk about that in a show on inflation. These things are so critical and so important. We don’t wanna get lost in the jargon. We want to give you tools to understand, there’s so much out there that you can get wrapped around the axel. We’re gonna take a little bit of time after having fun with what inflation is or what it could be.

Ben: Everyone’s having a great time, this is great.

Seth: I think this is amazing, I remember getting told this by grandma and grandpa.

Ben: We haven’t even gotten into the scary stuff yet. When we think about inflation and the consumer price index, and all the different pieces going on here, you have to really understand what’s ahead of you to prepare. This is a preparation conversation. Are you a prepper, Seth?

Seth: I should be. After spending 10 minutes with you, I’m convinced. What am I doing, I need to be filing 5 gallon buckets of rice. I am excited about talking about the outcomes of investing. That’s where it comes back to for us.

Ben: When we get into that show next, that’ll be the driver—we can talk about problems, but people don’t get into solutions. Some of the solutions aren’t going to be compliance friendly. Getting to the conversation of solutions is going to be strong.

Seth: We’re gonna talk about the problem now. CPI, consumer price index, and what is this thing? It’s the basket of goods, this fixing market basket of goods that represents all goods and services that are purchased for consumption. We talked a little bit about how they’ve manipulated that. They took oil and gas out of that. I didn’t fact check that.

Ben: At one point in time and I remember for a fact, early 2010-2000 whatever, they were removing and adding and subtracting and not including all sorts of things, oil and gas was definitely not one of them.

Seth: The gov’t has a few resources at its disposal to manipulate the CPI. Why would they wanna do that? We’ll get to that. The raw data used to calculate the CPI isn’t available to the public. Why? They say so that companies can’t compare prices. I can go on the internet and see what a gallon of milk costs me here and I can see what a gallon of milk costs me there.

Ben: What’s that app, Gas Buddy, where you can go see the different prices of gas is in comparison to your location, there’s no basis. This is a sham, we’re not gonna tell you what we’re actually calculating in this number because we don’t want to scare anyone or defeat competition rules.

Seth: What good does it do for them to manipulate the CPI?

Ben: Careful, you’re getting into conspiracy theories?

Seth: This is the truth, printed it off the internet, folks. There’s 80 million Americans, and where do they come from? Social security benefits, food stamps, military and civil service providers, and children of lunch service programs. That number is used to calculate how much money is received, or do they get an increase in their income? This number is so critical for the population that lives by the law of the CPI. It’s critical in the same token for a government that’s 30 trillion in debt. Balancing a budget, and they’re doing a horrible job of it. They don’t want us to know how bad they’re doing of it, but it’s really one of the main reasons I can see they’re manufacturing a number that keeps poverty in the household. There’s so many different ways to look at this, but that is ultimately one that says to us, we’re not willing to accept what real CPI is, because we don’t wanna have to pay a population of people over here that we promised we would. Your veterans, those in need—

Ben: Just because we came up with a number.

Seth: I hate saying it, but it’s the truth.

Ben: There’s a number of things that we could get into the political economics around this, because that’s what you’re talking about. I think that’s a conversation for another day because there’s so much headwind in that area. I think it was a great point and it’s something that requires some awareness. That’s truly something people need to have front and center on some level.

Seth: Can I say something else? This comes back to our original idea, it’s the truth. You know the truth; we know the truth. How many of us have come to a relationship, to eternity, because we finally came to that understanding of who God is to us? That truth. We’re born, created, with that inside of us, and when we don’t live by that and we see the rest of the world trying to influence and oppress other people, that’s a truth that we live with. I want to bring that into focus and attention and accept it.

Ben: I think there’s a lot of ways we have to address that as a nation, as Christians, as all of those different pieces. As we go through all of the inflationary issues, we know that everybody’s paying more for food. We talked about that to begin with. When you think about inflation, think about what you spend every month. The savings levels have never been higher. The credit score ratings are the highest average in history. People aren’t spending as much on a national average. There’s some good about that. That doesn’t count for the entire country—there’s still 20% of the country suffering deeply. Losing houses, properties, businesses, selling everything they have. It’s very state specific, a lot of the blue states are suffering the greatest with the more measured lockdown. Those are facts. In our society, someone has their facts, and we have our facts, but this is a fact. There’s no rhyme or reason for that on some level, but there’s safety concerns, whatever you believe that to be. That’s really impacting a lot of people. We have this whole thing going on where people are spending more on food, groceries, and some of the basics there’s a supply problem that’s causing those prices to increase. We know we’re paying more than 1.6% on milk that we paid last year. We can say that on almost every item that’s a staple. Some of them are 200-400% more. There’s no educational piece that Powell’s gonna get on the Fed chair and say this is great. They’re literally talking about making inflation higher than 2%. They want the average to be 2%. If their 1.68% means they’re gonna double the cost of milk, I’m not ready for their 3%. You know?

Seth: Is it possible that they could have just done this by a 1.9 trillion number? Which is the influx that they just passed and brought to the table? How does that reach the consumer?

Ben: It’s not gonna reach the consumer, only 10% is gonna reach the consumer.

Seth: Printing money is supply and demand, right?

Ben: Whether it’s going to the people or not, that’s going to cause inflation. I have 5 articles here saying it doesn’t, but I don’t believe them at all.

Seth: They’re smarter than I am because they figured out how not to. Simple me. I couldn’t figure out how more money means inflation. Geez. People.

Ben: There’s not a listener that’s not paying more at the gas pump.

Seth: You skewed the numbers, we’re all out of whack now because of your flight to FL.

Ben: You go to the gas pump, right, you stick the thing in there and you see $2.40, some are paying $3 in some locations. You’re saying how does that impact inflation? Every tube of toothpaste, every toilet paper roll, everything that has to be shipped, it requires gas and oil for the mos part. As those prices go up, the price of shipping goes up, which means they have to charge you more at the store to overcome the additional cost. When we start realizing how much energy is produced by oil, we realize all the stores keeping their lights on, all the Amazon deliveries, it’s driving more cost to the bottom line. Not only are we seeing the demand issues pushing prices up, but we’re also seeing the costs of the delivery services skyrocketing. I remember when Obama was in office, I was paying almost $5 a gallon. I remember saying, I can’t believe I’m paying this to fill up my car. What do you do, you can’t afford to drive at some point. I think what’s also happening with oil and gas, and people don’t really realize it, with Biden having a fight with oil—we’re not gonna build the pipelines, etc. all this green energy that we’re demanding being in existence, everyone of those pieces of plastic to the solar panel, every bolt, wind turbine, whether it’s in the Gulf of Mexico or wherever, all of those take oil to refine. You can’t make steel without oil. You start looking at all these pieces and you say, we have to drive that wind turbine out into the Gulf of Mexico. That’s more oil. We’re gonna have the highest oil demand in the next 4 years that we’ve ever seen. Yet, we’re creating more rigidity in our ability to be self sufficient in oil each and every day. There’s big stuff going on here. If we don’t think prices are gonna be skyrocketing because of the prices of oil, they’re gonna do everything they can to put the brakes on. They’ll claim it’s 3%, but it’ll be more like 9%.

Seth: I’m willing to bite on that one. I’ll say yes, and when we take a look at the calculations we were running at the beginning of the show, these numbers line far greater or more easily with 9% than they do what they’re trying to tell us. You’re listening to Money on Tap. You can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. We’ve talked a lot about CPI and inflation. One of the last things we wanted to touch on was the ‘what-if’. They’ve changed the calculation so much, because for them to disclose their methodology would bring to light what everyone else’s prices are. What if we were to go back and take a look at the calculation of the CPI they were using in the 90s, because we know what that is. If we were to take a look at that in comparison and bring those numbers forward, it’s a lot closer to 6%. It bumps into the 8% in 2008, but right now, we’d be a little under 6% using those numbers. If we were to take a look back to 1980…

Ben: This is just the calculation. You’re saying there’s a 3-4% disparity, it’d be 3-4% higher?

Seth: Right. Right now we’re at 5.8, and 2.6.

Ben: So they’ve changed this to alter the numbers lower.

Seth: We’re ticked off about this, but this is the information you have available to you if you choose. It’s the 1980 calculation. In the 1980s, we were up around 15%. That was the hyper inflation we were in, people were talking about CDs, you could go to the bank and get a CD for 13%. Where do you find that one again? If we were to use that calculation from the 1980s right now, we’d be at just under 10%.

Ben: This is a great illustration of taking a layover of their previous methodologies, but that’s no longer the way you do it. This is where it’s too complicated for people to understand because everyone’s going to the grocery store and spending money on the same things, but they’re telling me it’s not inflating that much. This is the level of how out of touch our government really is. For them not to understand, it should be about us and how inflation is affecting us and our economy. They’re missing the boat, and I take this as not being truthful.

Seth: We wanna land the plane here with you. What can you do? We can’t change the CPI, we can have a better understanding of what inflation is, but what can you do today to make a difference in your personal finances? I wanna say, it’s the same stuff we talk about all the time. You need to be saving money. Bring your own budget, get your own CPI to work. Make more money than you spend, start putting those dollars in some place that’s gonna try to keep pace with what we understand the CPI to be closer to that 6-7%. You need to be actively pursuing your own finances, and if you’re not engaging on that, if you need a little bit of help, get a friend, get a prayer, okay? You’re listening to Money on Tap. You can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. We want to appreciate you for allowing us to be who we are and have fun with what we do, which is financial planning. We’re also on Facebook at /3Dinvesting and Twitter at BFG_LLC. We can’t wait to make it a great day and a great life with you here on MOT.

SUMMARY

Ben Brayshaw and Seth Krussman are partners of Brayshaw Financial Group. Having questions about retirement and financial planning is normal, and the Brayshaw Financial Group is here to help! Reach out to Ben and Seth at 855-226-8551, or info@yourmoneyontap.com.

Do you remember when you were younger, and the cost of living was much lower? From movie tickets to gas prices, the rate of inflation keeps going up. In this episode of Money on Tap, Ben and Seth outline exactly what inflation is and the practical ways you can navigate it. When it comes to managing your money, inflation needs to be understood correctly for your money to work for you.

Money on Tap provides an in-depth look at the best way to manage your finances as you get closer and closer to retirement. Hosted by Ben Brayshaw and Seth Krussman, this podcast is chock full of information regarding managing money, being smart with finances, and a beginner’s guide to stocks. This hour-long podcast is an easy listen and a great way to learn more about how to be smart with your finances.

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Seth: Welcome to MOT. Money on Tap, your personal finance headquarters, where we bring out the professional’s experience and some fun. What we call 3-dimensional investing, utilizing insurance brokerage and fee-based planning, that's what we do on this show. We look at all sides of the issues and we bring a fully independent planning perspective to the table. Welcome to Money on Tap. We're so glad to have you aboard today. You can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. My name is Seth Krussman and guess who’s joining us today? Ben Brayshaw.

Ben: How you doing, buddy? How’s things this morning?

Seth: Things are good. We’ve had some sunshine, which really helps us in OR, because we go through a couple of months where it’s pretty gray. If you can make it through Feb, you’re golden. The spring is here, sun is out, daylight savings time, good stuff.

Ben: NE is 20 degrees, so you’ve gotta get through the same Feb, March period here.

Seth: Love the seasons, love to see spring here. I have a bounce in my step. That’s what I’ve got going on today. One of the reasons I’m excited today is because of the topic. Occasionally we get into a subject that requires more than one show. We talked about pensions, creating your personal pension. We’ve bumped into an article by Fidelity that we couldn’t pass up; what are the myths? Part 3, what are the myths about annuities? Why is this appropriate and timely for our listeners, and our clients, if you look at the market, right? Where are we at? We’re at all-time highs. If you’re looking to start to protect your future income, pension, it can be a really significant opportunity for you to start taking some of that off the table and doing some different things. Annuities are so versatile; it depends on what kind you’re looking at. It can have a different design and purpose from another annuity over here. We’re gonna talk about those variations.

Ben: One of the things about it is, there’s no good or bad investment, there’s appropriate or inappropriate. What’s great about this article is the myth concept, breaking that down so you can look at it from an unbiased perspective: does this work for me, does it offer value that I never perceived before? With markets at all-time highs, and I talked about this last time too—I’d say listen, this would solve your problem, this would provide you, taking a small portion of your assets, provide a full solution for you. Some would be yes, some would be no. for those who said yes when the market was at an all-time high, 2007-2008, they tell me, that was genius. The people who didn’t, they’re not clients. I wish them the best, but I know what happened over the next couple months. I looked at their portfolio and said, there’s some real danger here. They can’t understand or foreshadow. When you can wrap yourself in a better bubble wrap with a portion of your assets, it takes a lot of question marks out of the future for you. It gives you peace of mind, that’s why people buy them. When you use an architecture structure, it takes the guesswork out of it. I think myths are really important to discuss, because there’s truth in a myth, and we need to break that out and say hey, this is the truth piece, this is the myth piece. That’s what really uncovers when you talk about the myth piece.

Seth: We’re gonna try to shelf those opinions that people have told us about, whoever it is has brought across the religion of annuity, because you might be listening right now and say, this is another annuity show. There’s a lot of podcasts where that’s their pitch. We talk about 3-D investing. This is a tool, something we use on a daily basis, how do you use it, approach it appropriately for yourself and your plan, and it’s one of those places where his clients took his advice, worked with him on the products and loved it…we’re not guaranteeing anything, but it’s a moment in the market where you’ll wanna take a look at the money you’ve been working in the market and putting it in a place where you know there’s something locked for you.

Ben: One of the things as we go through this, when we talk about 3-D investing, for those who have been listening for a while, or those who are new, this is one tool in an arsenal, an entire toolshed or barn. You can grab just one item. Unfortunately, the industry is laden with people who only work in one domain. In the domain they have, they’re trying to put a square peg in a round hole, and you need someone to find all the pegs for all the holes. We’ll be able to add some color to that because there’s some misnomers about annuities. There’s also buyer myths that I want to touch on. Before we get into that, we’ve got Money in the News.

Seth: Lebron James is apparently taking ownership in the Red Sox group. I’m always interested in what James is doing, because the guy has some great mentorship in his life, and he’s done amazing things. What does he do? He’s interested in taking small pieces of ownership in these profitable endeavors. He’s there for an ownership piece, Bono would be one of the other people who have done this really well. Celebrities have turned this business around.

Ben: I think we should have a voting process inside who should own the Red Sox-Fenway program. From a New Englander, it’s like Lebron James, Red Sox, you’re not in the same sport. Stay away from our city. We allow you to come in so we can beat you.

Seth: Buy a piece of the Dodgers.

Ben: I have no interest in the Dodgers. I would only want to own the Red Sox. What’s really interesting about that is they own a little Liverpool Football Club, some NASCAR exposure, and Nessin, which is the Red Sox station out here. I can’t blame the guy from out of state wanting to be apart of a winning program. Next up, we were talking about places to live: NE, the West Coast, Seth loves it out there. I’m glad he does, it’s beautiful out there. We have an article from CNBC, some cities are paying people to move there. If you’re living in the city where people are getting paid to move there, you have to ask yourself what the problem is. This here by JL Jennifer Lu, it cites the fact that dozens of cities are paying up to 16k in cash incentives to move to their town, city, or location—tax credits, goods and services, everything from gym memberships and moving expenses. It’s pretty phenomenal that they’re expanding their population. What I think is really interesting is the development with COVID-19, working from home, and companies are saying we’re not going back to the office for 6 months to a year, some are saying you’re gonna permanently work from home. A lot of people’s productivity numbers are higher based on the data that they collect. I think that’s pretty amazing. People are considering moving to obscure, more remote, out of the city, get a yard…then you’ve got Baltimore, MD, willing to pay 5k towards your home, I’m not sure I’m interested in moving to Baltimore, but NW AL is willing to give you 10k in cash over the course of the year if you’re accepted into the relocation program. All I can hear is a banjo in the back of my head, but it’s probably beautiful. That’s horrible. Then you go to SW MI area, 90 miles outside Chicago…they’re doing a 15k forgivable grant over the course of 3 years, after buying a home in one of their qualifying zip codes. There’s a lot of stuff going on in this country, and we’re in a position to take advantage of this, spread out from the city and build other towns, cities, and locations. There’s so much beauty in America of all sorts, all places, and if that could become your home, what a great opportunity. Make sure one of these offers isn’t so luxurious because it’s built on top of some sort of radioactive material.

Seth: That’s my skeptic in the background, saying what’s wrong with this location, wanting to test the water first and all that…geez, if someone’s paying me 15k to move there, which 90 miles from Chicago, what’s really going on? You’re trying to pull me in with 15k in loan forgiveness. This is something that’s not really all that new. It’s more of a movement now than it has been in the past. The organization Make my Move, which you can take a look at, there’s 37 relocation offers. Some are paid promos, others are free. That’s where you can go and start shopping if you’re interested. I do like the San Juan, Puerto Rico, possibly Las Vegas, there are places that do look interesting. In all fairness, AL is a beautiful state, wonderful people.

Ben: Have you ever been to AL?

Seth: No, but I have looked at the pictures. When we get the top 10 or top 30 places to live in the US, AL always has—

Ben: Someone’s paying for those articles.

Seth: Chattanooga, TN, is offering 10k towards a new home, and 1250 towards moving expenses. That’s a beautiful part of the country, I have been through there. There’s water, rivers, trees, green, it’s a gorgeous place.

Ben: I’m gonna offer you 10k to stay where you’re at so you don’t move to the East Coast, how’s that? I’m just kidding.

Seth: I will say sometimes 3k miles is a gift.

Ben: Next up from Fox Business here, we’ve got home buyers cancelling contracts as home prices soar. Basically, the fact that the cost of materials over the last year have risen 170%, but I’ve heard 200-300%, the cost of 2x4 and pressure treated wood, but they’re stating the cost of building a house has risen so much, that people have said I can’t afford to build it. It’s caused people to cancel their contract entirely.

Seth: A huge part of the home buying demographic is the first time buyer. What was your experience buying your first home? Mine wasn’t brand new, it was a first home. Brand new homes are becoming more common for first time buyers. A lot of those programs have incentives for first home buyers, and if that price point is out of the market for the first time home buyer, I guess they’re gonna have to look for something else. One of the things you talked about was moving out of the cities. People are like, get me out of here, because the city doesn’t attract me anymore, and the suburb looks really nice right now. Millennials have kids, and that changes what people are interested in. I was listening to Colin Koward, and he thinks people are gonna get bored in the burbs and move back to the city. They’re gonna think I had entertainment, a life, everything in reach. That’s a totally different deal when you’re living in the burbs. It was a big deal when we got a skate park or a basketball court, there wasn’t a whole lot to do. We made our own fun. If you’re not getting your fun served up to you on every corner, I guess Xbox in your suburb home is the same in your apartment. You can get a hold of us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. Give us a call, send us an email, you can go to our website and stream our podcast there. Check us out at Brayshaw Financial Group. Hopefully by the end of this show, we’ll get you some information to get to a better place about making decisions for your finances. We’re gonna take a break, we’ll be right back, don’t go anywhere. Folks, we have a lot of fun doing this show. One of the things we love about doing Money on Tap is that our goal for you to have access to have the financial planning world, what do we think, how do we do, what are we talking about? Raising the bar for your financial education, it’s so critical. That’s what we’re doing here. The other side of this is, we’re financial planners. If you’re looking to work with a financial planner, if you want to have that playbook for you to understand the important things right now, how you’re going to get to your goal, how to retire, that’s what we’re doing here. If you have $250k of investable assets, give us a call. It’s free to you and it is worth your time to pick up that phone and give us a call and discover what complete wealth management looks like. Ben and I are excited about the opportunity to partner with you and give you that financial plan that’s going to make the next step so much better understood and get you where you need to go. Welcome back, you’re listening to Money on Tap. You can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. We have all this audio available for you on our website or any of the podcast venues out there. Have a listen out there, you can get caught up on your leisure. Feel free to give us a call because this is a topic that drives questions. Almost every person we talk to or work within retirement has a strategy that fits inside the annuity conversation. Some are tax strategies, some are estate strategies, it’s creating an income solution for you that’s foundational. We use that term all the time when figuring out how to build or create a retirement that’s successful. The other day I was looking at foundations on skyscrapers. I did research on this, and did you know the average time it takes to build a skyscraper foundation? 1.5 years, and if you’ve ever had a chance to look at skyscrapers, it seems like forever that they’re digging a hole, but they need a foundation that will support the rest of the building. On average, it’s 1.5 years. Here’s the second part of that. The average time for a skyscraper, start to finish, not counting and permitting, the average time to build a skyscraper is 3 years. In context, this isn’t something people go to the water cooler, did you buy this stock, or this NFT, whatever people are wanting to talk about. This isn’t something you take to the water cooler and say, I just got this annuity that’s mind blowing and amazing. Nobody looks at the foundation. It’s a really good rebar, it’s not one of those pieces that people love to talk about and can’t wait to dive into. If you’re gonna build something that lasts, you’re gonna need to spend some time and put the piece in place for the rest of your life.

Ben: I didn’t know that, but it makes the point that building your financial portfolio takes time and planning to work. Once you’re off to the races, building the rest of the 50 floors takes time. Here you have a foundation that takes 1.5 years. As we step into the 5 myths of annuities, which is the end part of our program, I think it’s really important that we kind of dig into why we’re doing this. It’s because there’s so many misnomers. It’s not the cool conversation, but it can be an interesting element. The first myth we have here, listed by Fidelity, and their viewpoints on May 5^th, 2020. The reason we wanted to do this was basically for us to show you when we read these articles. To add the flavor. I’d encourage you to go look at this, read it, because it’ll add some interest. As we deliberate about these 5 myths, you can start seeing more depth to the article that we see, and pieces around it that we don’t cover. The first myth we have here is that annuities are only for retirees. That’s a great example for the start of a conversation, I’m way too young to own an annuity. Annuities are a wonderful avenue for a lot of reasons. One of the scenarios is that annuities are a tax deferred vehicle. If you’re maxing out your 401k, you’re saving money on your taxes, you can buy an investment based annuities that doesn’t have writers and features to expand and create additional costs, higher costs, fees are another conversation around annuities. You can buy no cost or low cost annuities that are designed to create a tax deferral that comes with after tax money. You want to put money away for retirement, but you subscribe to the tax deferral growth and how valuable that is, then this is an amazing opportunity to create tax deferral. This is quasi known, but people run scared from the conversation about annuities and don’t realize I can buy a low fee annuity, have full exposure to the market, uncapped returns, buy a mutual fund sub account, buy an indicy like the S&P 500 and have exposure to those vehicles. I can get the tax deferral, that’s an amazing opportunity that people don’t take advantage of. This article goes into that. The conversation around that is, if you don’t want the market piece of it, you’ve got the CD-like piece, a fixed-rate return. In those fixed annuities, you’re gonna find a fixed side better than a CD offered at a bank, and it’s tax-deferred. Clients say, I have these CDs and I never need the money, and I’m like, why are you paying taxes on them? Why don’t you stick it in an annuity and tax-defer it?

Seth: If you have these set up in a trust, that takes care of what happens after you die. Things we don’t hear a lot about are fixed base annuities, just like an IRA. Is that valuable for you? It passes probate, it’s immediate. There’s no probate that’s gonna come in and say we’re entitled to that money over there. If you don’t have a trust but you have a will, you can bypass probate.

Ben: You don’t have to be retired and die, you can be young and have an accident to have a probate. Make sure you have your wills and trusts in place so you can make the transition smoother for those you love. Otherwise it becomes a nightmare and people say, why didn’t they do this? As #1 runs into #2: annuities cost too much.

Seth: If you’re taking a look at an annuity that has a lot in it, for instance, there’s guarantees, guaranteed income, any of these annuities can offer in their structure, of course there’s going to be a cost to it. Looking at apples to apples, does it cost more than investing in Vanguard? Yeah, it’s not that.

Ben: There’s feeless annuities out there.

Seth: Yes, but it’s not gonna offer all the features.

Ben: I think you can get exposure to the S&P 500 to some annuities in a mirrored return, with an uncapped value and no fees—those opportunities exist. You have to commit to long periods of time, and the liquidity is not there, people go to Vanguard and buy the S&P 500, SPY, IVV…

Seth: Low cost indices.

Ben: I just think when people think fees, it’s a fee race. You’re saying to yourself, irrelevant of yourself, separate of what Vanguard has to offer. What I think about, if you hold apples to apples and said someone wanted to go to S&P 500 over in Vanguard, it’s not you’re buying S&P, but they mirror your returns off of that. You get the actual equated return of that, and you could have lower or no fees than what Vanguard’s offering. People don’t want to consider it, because annuities have such high fees—it’s a total myth that annuities are all high fees.

Seth: They are gonna have a range from .1% to .21%. In comparison, you’re saying let’s have an investment annuity, so we’ll have tax free growth, and let’s use something that’s a low cost annuity, a mirror index fund there, large cap, small cap, whatever. There’s all these options and all these managers you can tuck inside. It’s an option that’s very similar in terms of the fee structure. People get into the comparison that’s not fair or true, where they have guarantees built inside of it, and it’s for a different purpose.

Ben: That’s where they become expensive. Every myth has truth in it. Every lie that you believe, there’s enough truth for you to buy into it. Seth, you’re dead on. When you buy a car, it used to be when I was a kid, we had rollup windows. If someone had electric windows, it was a rich car. They had addons, the tape deck, CD players didn’t exist until I was in high school. When you buy the addons that add the expenses, just like a car, they become more expensive. It’s adding the navigation, adding the seniors, those things add costs. When you start adding these bells and whistles, you’re gonna drive the expenses in a prohibitive manner. You have to be careful about what you’re adding and subtracting, what the purpose is. If the purpose matches, the price will be right.

Seth: We put it into terms, we want to guarantee your ability to retire, that’s the pension idea. It may not be the best income that you can create for yourself if everything goes right, but it’s an income that’s guaranteed, and come hell and high water, you’re not gonna have to worry about it. Last night I was working on other numbers here, and it’s appropriate because we’ve used this image of the car and car insurance to do a comparison here. The average in OR for car insurance is 1,358 a year. That’s a full replacement if you wreck the car, replace it, full insurance. The average, if you’re looking at a 30k vehicle, what’s the expense to insure your vehicle, it’s around 4.5%. If you take a look at that comparisons, when we were talking about .1% to up 3%, what is it—

Ben: That’s 1/10^th of a percent. It’s really interesting.

Seth: If you take a look at the purpose that we just talked about, this is the car that has all the bells and whistles, it serves the purpose of making sure you can retire. You’re insuring your ability to retire, that is a savings in that comparison. Why would you not guarantee your ability to retire for paying a little more, but you’re willing to go ahead and insure your vehicle. No one cares.

Ben: It’s just costs. If you’re talking about the high end, I know annuities that go really high. They’re like, how can you afford to do that?

Seth: Have you ever seen an annuity that’s at 4.5% fees?

Ben: I have. It’s a long story, but I’ve only come across 2 that get that high. You have to say, I’ve gotta make 4.5 before I break even. You have to look at all the different pieces. Sometimes that insurance purpose is exactly what you need. Our world has been convinced that we all need car insurance. I don’t know a state that doesn’t have some sort of car insurance requirement, even if it’s just liability. What I don’t understand is why we don’t have insurance around everyone’s retirement plan, even their 401ks. That’s what I don’t understand. That’s the one thing that’ll make people really vulnerable. When you buy car insurance, you’re buying it to protect the other person. That’s the story here. When you buy insurance on your retirement, and it’s not all your money. This is an experience of dollar amounts to accomplish a retirement security, why wouldn’t we insure that on some level? That’s a real safety net scenario. We’re at all time highs, and you could be the person laughing us out of that room, but I can give you a list of clients who are saying that was well timed, that was a good move. All the statistical information we’re looking at in these markets is all past your lifetime. It’s all past your death. We have this video on sequence of returns. I want to get that up on our website so people can look at it. We’ll get that up on our website and you watch that, you can watch two people retiring at two different times with the same amount of money. One runs out, and one becomes a zillionaire. It’s crazy how timing can change everything. You have one chance to retire successfully, why would you risk it on the stock market? You can have stock market exposure on these annuities, and you can still solve your problem and make sure everyone’s well off.

Seth: Myth #3: There’s no point for buying an annuity for income before retirement, just like there’s no planning for retirement before you retire. That’s what we’re saying.

Ben: It’s funny to do this article off of fidelity. These are their myths, it’s funny because Fidelity is such a large money manager and yet they provide annuities, they understand it, but they know it’s been poorly communicated what they are. Unfortunately, someone sold the wrong thing to the wrong person. That’s happened way too many times, and it’s given them a bad name at times.

Seth: It’s a massive money manager, but at one point in time, they were probably advocating, do not use annuities, it’s interesting for them to come full cycle here. If you’d been there in the driver’s seat with a client that’s retired and experienced a negative sequence of returns that’s preventable, that’s a horrible feeling, I’m sure. I can only imagine what that would be like.

Ben: I would just figure it out. I love that phrase. We’ll just figure it out. That is the wrong answer. It will always be the wrong answer. Please call us. It’s not a good decision to lean on just figuring it out. The thing is, right now, at 60, 65, 70, you’re saying I’ll work part time at Walmart, someone will use me as a consultant, I can manipulate that. You don’t realize it’s a failure between 80-85 and it’s run you ragged, and you can’t go back to work. I am so guilty of this. Every once in a while I think, I could do that, maybe I should try this activity, but nope, that part of my body hurts. No matter what, you don’t really acknowledge them because we’re still living in this past experience.

Seth: In terms of the annuity before retirement piece, a lot of annuities require time. It’s better to plan early than to plan late. #4: I can easily create lifetime income for my retirement accounts. We’ve had clients that we’ve sat down and told them to put the money in the bank. Maybe that’s what you’re talking about, and maybe that’s you. You have more than enough and you’re completely fine. That’s Option A, for sure, but maybe you’re in that situation that we just described, that negative sequence of returns is a reality for you on the timing of your retirement, and you’re just never going to recover. Unless you really plan that through and say, hypothetically the market does this, or if you’re willing to consider the market at an average, whatever you wanna use that as, 7%, 12%, or maybe you wanna use something very conservative like 4%. If you’re willing to consider that as a market average, you have to be willing to consider the downside of that. If the market pullbacks 50%, you’re drawing off that portfolio, the income you require, at the end of a 2 year period of time, which we’ve seen the market pull down to, even close to what it was prior to a pullback, you have to factor that in too. That’s where so many people are not even willing to take a look at the truth here.

Ben: Seth, I think there’s only 3 things, I’m quoting from the article: “besides social security and pensions, only annuity guarantees a stream of income you can’t outlive.” That is true, and if you don’t have a pension, your social security doesn’t look great, and there are people who don’t have great social security numbers, those are the things you need to bolster up. We talked about pensions and buying pensions, you may need to say I’ve got a multiemployer pension and I’m concerned about what you said, evaluating what an annuity would do as an option for you to create income that you should be evaluating. The other side of this is if you have all your money in the market and you’re trying to drive income and you’re gonna take 3-5% out a year, there’s a vulnerability out there too. People say you’ll have a 90% odd chance of never running out of money—we live by those laws. Those are standards we understand. You have the changing demographics on how investing is going to change. The baby boomers are going to change the ongoing returns over the years. You have that thing you have to impale your portfolio with, because it’s gonna change how you invest. If the market drops, taking that 5% out of what it used to be—if it was a million dollars and you’re taking 5k out a year and the portfolio drops to 8k, your advisor’s gonna tell you to pull 40k out. Even though taking 5k out should work. That’s the way it works. You have to be prepared for the fact that you’re gonna have to live on less income, because you’re gonna feel guilty taking that much money out, and when it’s down you’re not gonna wanna take much money out, I can’t tell you how many people say we’ll wait for it to recover. If you’re gonna wait for it to recover, you don’t need me or this investment. If it doesn’t recover, you should’ve already bought this. The market always moves up, but they don’t realize they’re taking dollars out after negative impacts causes a greater compounded loss. That might sound complicated for our listeners, something we can explain if you reach out to us.

Seth: You’re listening to Money on Tap. You can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. We have the radio show and podcast available for you everywhere. We’ll be right back.

Ben: If you’re listening today and your questions are outside the box of state, financial planning, or any of the pieces we’re talking about, don’t forget Brayshaw Financial offers auto, home and business insurance. We have a department that handles all of that for you. Give us a call at 855-226-8551 or email us at info@yourmoneyontap.com.

Seth: You’re listening to Money on Tap. You can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. We’re talking about a topic we’re passionate about. It supports our clients and goals, and that is annuities. Some of the myths around annuities—there’s a lot more than the 5 we’ve listed here. #5 is the insurance company gets my money when I die. We just talked about in the beginning, one of the benefits of an annuity, if you’re using it outside of an IRA is that an annuity has beneficiaries to it if you designate them. We see some people designate their estate, and then they don’t have an estate plan in place. Ultimately that drops it back in the courts making a decision for you on the annuity. If you’re doing what we recommend, which is putting the beneficiaries into place, it bypasses probate. That’s not the insurance company. I don’t know where this myth comes from, because I’ve never heard, usually we’re talking about most of these myths are embedded in some truth.

Ben: It would be the life only payout on the single premium. Someone says I have 100k, I need the highest payout I can possibly get for my life. I don’t want any guarantee on time period, and someone dies after putting 100k in. maybe they’re 60, and they say give me 100k and they’ll pay you 8k. in 10 years, that’s 80k and I’m 60, if I live to 80 I’m gonna get 160k, and they die at 62. If you choose a guaranteed time period plus life, they may give you a 10 year payout at 7500, say, in 10 years you get 75k and if you died at 62, your family would get the remaining of the guaranteed years, so 8 more years of payments, and the insurance companies would keep the remainders. They have people that live 30 years or 2 years. They have all the contracts and information on what the payout is. A lot of these contracts are becoming—there’s a stat out there if 2 people are over 65, there’s a 25% chance that one of you is going to live to 100. When they’re betting on information, someone who did that 5-10 years ago had no idea they had a chance to live to 100. Some of these annuities could take some burdens on the payouts. If you’re working with an advisor and you understand what you’re buying, you’re gonna understand the risks of what the insurance companies will or won’t get. Most of the people are complaining about how the insurance company got all the money, it’s the beneficiaries, not the buyer. The buyer was saying I need the highest income to survive. I can’t remember, I’m sure we’ve done or two, but I can’t remember having done one specifically, other than for someone who was a single person with no errors. The other scenario where we’ve done this, so I do think we have one out there. The gentleman had a pension company and they offered him a buyout, he wanted to take it. There’s no value to the pension, it was just we’ll give you money to go away and we looked at doing an immediate annuity. I don’t know if we did or didn’t do that, but you’d be transitioning to when you die there’s nothing, which is the better option? I don’t know if we moved forward, but that is a place where you may look at that. They bought it because it beat the pension they currently had. Beneficiaries…unless it’s a spousal payment, they don’t get a pension. As we wrap this show up, I talked about the myth of the buyer’s side…one thing I think that sums up all these myths, the thing that really drives why people reject annuities or the scenario because they can’t see value in it, it all stems from greed. People run away from the conversation about annuities because they think it’s gonna limit them, hold them back, and honestly the core of that thinking is greed. There’s nothing other than greed that stops someone from buying an annuity. If you’re concerned about fees, time period, etc. but if you’re rejecting annuities for all the myths we covered today, it’s a greed problem. It’s not like this is a sin issue, but it’s just you think you can do better elsewhere. That driving motivation of why these things aren’t sexy or appealing is because you theoretically might do better elsewhere and you’re looking to make every penny and you’re not taking proper steps to make a foundational element in your portfolio. If you say I don’t like the annuity because it’s worse than the CDs in my bank, that’s a risk issue. That’s not greed, if you’re going to run rampant in the stock market, that’s greed. I own annuities. I read an article, there was a gross amount of money, he had over 80% of his money in annuities. Those are the types of things that people need to be aware of that savvy investors use regularly but the average world runs away. I’m glad Fidelity has this clearly laid out on their website. If you’re running inside these myths inside yourself personally, give us a call to see if they can be debunked for you. If annuities aren’t the right fit, there’s gotta be a foundational element that works for you.

Seth: How many times do we see the wrong annuity in place? There’s a process, if they’re out of a surrender period, you might take a look at rolling into something else. It is what it is, you’re not opposed but you have the wrong annuity, it’s just not what you need or want.

Ben: When it comes down to working with somebody, they have to be able to articulate your concerns, fears, and woes into the financial world. People, when they don’t understand you, they’re gonna advise you to buy the wrong thing.

Seth: You’re listening to Money on Tap. You can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. We want to appreciate you for allowing us to be who we are and have fun with what we do, which is financial planning. We’re also on Facebook at /3Dinvesting and Twitter at BFG_LLC. We can’t wait to make it a great day and a great life with you here on MOT.

SUMMARY

Ben Brayshaw and Seth Krussman are partners of Brayshaw Financial Group. Having questions about retirement and financial planning is normal, and the Brayshaw Financial Group is here to help! Reach out to Ben and Seth at 855-226-8551, or info@yourmoneyontap.com.

There’s always an element of truth to a myth…Ben and Seth break down five common myths people believe when it comes to investing in annuities. Listen into this episode of Money on Tap and figure out the truth behind each myth and why putting your money into annuities may be the best thing you ever did for your retirement.

Money on Tap provides an in-depth look at the best way to manage your finances as you get closer and closer to retirement. Hosted by Ben Brayshaw and Seth Krussman, this podcast is chock full of information regarding managing money, being smart with finances, and a beginner’s guide to stocks. This hour-long podcast is an easy listen and a great way to learn more about how to be smart with your finances.

MOT Show 162

Seth: Welcome to MOT. Money on Tap, your personal finance headquarters, where we bring out the professional’s experience and some fun. What we call 3-dimensional investing, utilizing insurance brokerage and fee-based planning, that's what we do on this show. We look at all sides of the issues and we bring a fully independent planning perspective to the table. Welcome to Money on Tap. We're so glad to have you aboard today. You can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. My name is Seth Krussman and…

Ben: Ben Brayshaw here, how’s everyone doing? Seth, how you doing this morning?

Seth: Good, I’m really excited about this show. How about you, Ben?

Ben: I’m excited, this is part 2 of the pension and annuity show. Do you love em or hate em? We talked about employer struggles and the pension reform act of 2014. We talked about pensions getting decreased for some of these organizations, and that’s a big scare for a lot of people, especially in the trades world, where the multi-employer piece has become under attack for pension organizations that can’t support the payouts. That’s a scary thing and understanding guaranteed income is a big thing in retirement, whether it’s social security or annuities. We’re on part 2, and around our show, all these articles start popping out. We’re not alone in the conversation, which is funny I think. I think it’s nice to see, some of the material we have. We want to talk about publicity in the news pieces around pensions, annuities, social security, all at once with stimulus packages. I can’t tell you how much I really think this is going to bring clarity to a lot of the stuff we’re talking about. People listen to us and they say, ‘I don’t know, but they sound like they know what they’re talking about.’ We try to use news sources that we believe to be reputable, or have information that’s sound, different pieces there. That’s important to substantiate in the world around us. That’s why I like the fact that, just talking about this stuff and taking our opinion, but it’s not our own opinion. We have opinions because of sources, right?

Seth: You’re right. We have some unique ways that we use these different tools, and it’s based off of the client, and what is their needs and their situation, and we do it all day long. To have somebody else that’s an external source, reputable—external source, 3^rd party, yes. That’s exactly what this thing is supposed to do and why. It’s not from you and I telling them, you need to do this. This is important.

Ben: You need to watch out, buyer beware, all those different things flying around. Any listener can find annuity shows. This one is gonna be different, because you’re gonna understand a lot more about what’s going on, because we don’t just do annuities. People don’t understand 3D investing, brokerage fee based planning and insurance. The thing is when you’re dealing with insurance and insurance only, you might get captured into an investment or program that’s not meant for you, but the person only works in that domain. We do so much managed money, but that’s only part of the story.

Seth: Managed money meaning what?

Ben: Fee-based investment planning, buying stocks and funds…

Seth: Oh, you mean we’re a fiduciary and we only do this as a fee-based program to enhance you, we put your needs first, that’s the fiduciary standard, Right? People put this out there and say, hey look at us. We’re doing this for you. Other people are only doing things that benefit their wallet.

Ben: This side’s saying this is the way to go, and the other side is saying it’s the way to go. You’ve got that one dude saying that you should only be investing…folks, if you’re working with somebody who’s only licensed in one domain, that is the number 1 buyer beware. You’re only gonna get one perspective, and that’s a real problem. I love the fact that we can unbiasedly—if someone wants to buy managed accounts, we don’t really care. You wanna buy an annuity? We don’t really care. It’s all about planning and what your goals are. When you have your goals lined out, it will all come together. I can’t tell you how many people; once you sit down and understand what you want, it really makes sense once you see the plan, once you see exactly what you can do. The average investor’s not aware of it. I’m excited for this show, that’s a long intro for us.

Seth: We’re gonna do something else right now, it’s called Money in the News. Ben, if I were to come up with a word and call it nonfungible token, would you think that’s a real word?

Ben: This is WSJ, Amanda Louellen and Kaitlyn Ostrap, who did an audio article that Seth sent me that I literally – are you kidding me? This is interesting. It’s called an NFT. I was thinking this was going to be an ETN, this is a new – this is a nonfungible token, NFT. You can buy an electronic event or thing, a video, a tweet, the example was that you could buy Jack Dorsey’s first tweet as the first CEO of twitter and own the rights to it. Anyone can see it…

Seth: And the more people that see it, the more the value goes up. Memes, apparently there’s some very popular memes out there. You could own the very first authenticated of that copy. It could be the NBA, for instance, has a ton of material. Lebron James’ first dunk, that’s their property, but they can sell that very first to you through this nonfungible token. Let’s say you’re the stamp collector. You’re the baseball card collector. There’s probably a lot of different stamps out there, or copies of these that you might have 10 of these stamps, and that makes them more valuable because there’s less of them. There’s only 1 digital copy or first edition of these pieces and you can own this through the nonfungible token.

Ben: They were comparing this to baseball cards, and I was a big baseball card collector. I’ve traded, bought sets, I couldn’t even fathom what this may be worth in the marketplace. Everyone knows there’s rarities out there. There’s nothing out there that has enough value to pay money to own the rights to something that I could personally care less who owns. I’m struggling at the value of it other than you own it. You stick it in your digital wallet. If you own this item and every time someone viewed it, on YouTube, let’s say there’s 40 million views, you own the rights to it, and you got compensated for it, I’d look at it as a real investment.

Seth: It’s so new, only since 2017 that it’s been around, and in 2020 these have taken off. It’s so new that if you created one of these digital properties and you own the rights to it, it could turn into some kind of a way that you’re compensated, you know, not a traditional dividend. We’re gonna get into annuities and it could be a substantial income for a really long time.

Ben: It’d be great if that were the case, but we’ll see. Next up on Money in the News, we’ve got a New Hampshire local, this is something that’s on the tip of a number of people’s mind, and thoughts, and things going on in the tax updates. A lot of people in NH work in MA, and there’s been this ongoing state battle, all over the country. ‘2020 COVID hit, and I had to stay home at work. I work over state lines, I pay taxes to the state, I travel,’ all this traveling stuff has completely changed. All these people aren’t traveling, they’re working at a table, the side of their bedroom. I’ve talked to people who work for a tech company in NYC, and I could hear kids in the background. That’s pretty common right now. They were literally living in a studio. One kid, we could tell it was a complicated scenario. That has been a story for hundreds of millions of Americans. There is now, in NH, fighting, and those who work in MA, they’re demanding that people who work in MA but don’t live there to still pay taxes. They’re working from home, and they’re saying it’s your report to place. It’s interesting because I have clients who works for big major corporation, they’ve got offices in NH and MA, he asked his boss to assign him to the NH office because he’s working from home but having to pay MA taxes.

Seth: How do you know if this is you? If you’re a W2 employee, there’s a tendency that there’s a state tax on your W2 being taken out, or where it should tell you the location you’re paying the tax to. Some states are working well with this. If you live in WA, you don’t pay state income tax, but your company’s based in OR and that’s the way it worked here. One of the things I love about this is I feel like NH is sticking it to the man.

Ben: MA was always called “Taxachusetts”. The other buyer beware in this article by JR Waland and Laura Sanders is working from home, if you’re a W2 employee, you can’t claim that space.

Seth: No home office allowances since 2017, it’s been removed.

Ben: I haven’t heard any rumbling in Congress about it, but I think during the pandemic, there should be some allotment for that.

Seth: The employer can pay or compensate you for that space and write if off on their end, and it doesn’t qualify as income, which is a nice bonus. Talk to your boss. If you can get the bonus and they can write it off on their end.

Ben: Any bonus can be written off on the employer’s end…what I would say is, maybe you can renegotiate your salary and say, ‘There’s a portion of my salary that’s for the infrastructure of this building, but if you downsize, maybe we could change my pay structure.’ Maybe some of it’s a reimbursement.

Seth: That’s the season we’re in. if that happens to be you, get some professional help. You are listening to Money on Tap. You can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. Folks, we’re gonna take a quick break, and when we come back, it’s part 2 of annuities. Do you love them? Or do you hate them? We’re gonna get into some solutions around pensions, talk about this pension crisis that we have, and some hope for pensioners. We’re gonna get into some of this stuff, but it’s gonna be really exciting. Can’t wait. Don’t go anywhere, you’re listening to Money on Tap.

Ben: For a number of our listeners, you might have a lot of questions. We’re offering Zoominars, which are webinars over Zoom where we have top experts: social security, financial and estate planning experts who you can speak with. We’re also having webinar based Zoominars where we’ll have multiple groups, and you can be a part of that and enjoy that coming up in the new year. Reach us at 855-226-8551 or email us at info@yourmoneyontap.com to schedule your Zoominar.

Seth: Welcome back, you’re listening to Money on Tap. You can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. Just to give a little familiarity to Ben and myself, what do we do? We’re independent financial planners. Ben’s in New England, and I’m in the NW corner of the Greater United States, also known as Portland, OR. We love doing what we’re doing. Part of the purpose today is to educate you on some of the things that we do in our financial planning world that are really important for us. There’s no way we could ever get around trying to solve the retirement equation without having these discussions. If you’re talking to someone that’s a financial planner or retirement consultant, if they’re not talking to you about this, that’s a big red flag. This needs to be a full conversation, full disclosure conversation of pros and cons, to understand, is this something you need to be using in your retirement, and what is that all about? We’re talking about guaranteed income. Where do you get guaranteed income? For one, social security. That is known as guaranteed income. As of today, that’s still what it’s known as. Another place is pensions. That is what we talked about this last week, leading up into this conversation. The pension is what? Guaranteed income. If you have been working for a company out there that says, ‘This is part of our program, we have this pension. Part of your paycheck is gonna be used towards this future guarantee of income.’ This is very popular, the work, design, it’s been around since the Roman times. It has become very much a part of our work fabric, especially in the 20^th century. Today, it’s now fading out. People are much more familiar with the 401K programs. These are defined benefit programs that are farm more popular structure for people to be investing towards their retirement. 2 places so far: social security, pension, and annuities. That’s what’s gonna get us into the beginning of this conversation. We’re gonna pend a little bit of time because it just came out and it’s so appropriate. The article we’re gonna reference here is by Brett Orens, and you can find it on MarketWatch. This isn’t just Ben and Seth talking up their ideas and what they like, okay? We’re very much into this discussion, and you should be having this discussion with whoever you’re working with, and understand why is this important?

Ben: When we talk about the 3 guarantees, that wraps it up. If you think there’s something else out there that’s guaranteed income, you’re mistaken. There are only 3: social security, pensions, and annuities. How they work, clearly, are under question. I think this article brings a lot to the table. This recent pension and bailout, or the stimulus package, the 1.9 trillion dollars, had a very large item in there that’s completely unrelated. It was 86 billion dollars. That’s billion dollars, for bankrupt union pension plans. When you talk about Brett, he notes that, it’s kind of interesting because of the social security deficit being 16.8 trillion dollars, about 50k for every American. There’s nothing in there for social security. They’re bailing out union pensions right now with the 1.9 trillion stimulus package, with 86 billion bailouts. It’s a really good statement to say if they’re gonna bailout pensions, because it’s not a requirement of the government.

Seth: This isn’t a public fund. It’s private.

Ben: This is the pension guarantee corp. people have pensions everywhere. Whether you’re a firefighter, police officer, librarian, teacher, truck driver, electrician, there’s pensions all over: automakers, you name it. None of those are the responsibility of the US taxpayer. By law. They even note, I’m glad you mentioned that because it was in here, too. When the PBGC was put in place, it was never supposed to “be supported by taxpayers” says the 1974 law that created it. “The United States is not liable for any obligation or liability incurred by the corporation.” It’s supposed to be a self-funding program.

Seth: The fee is $31/year per member. That’s a deal. Guess what, folks? If you happen to be privately employed, you are now going to be funding not only social security, which is 16.8 trillion dollars underfunded at this moment, the private companies that have made guarantees to their employees through their pensions, for a guaranteed payout. We talked about this last week, but there’s some wiggle room in there because they’re making applications all the time to change the guarantees and change their plans on obligations. It’s a huge relief if you are a teamster. Huge relief because guess what? That multi-employer union plan, is that right, Ben? That’s what you mentioned before. It’s backed into a corner. It can’t fund it’s obligations. It’s one of the biggest unions out there, called the international brotherhood of teamsters. There’s some history there, too, which it’s been a while, but there’s been some shenanigans around that whole situation, but if you talk to John Murphy, the VP, of this union, he defends the rescue of the multiemployer union plans. He says, “society should be measured by how it treats the sick and elderly”. He flatly denies the plans were in trouble because of mismanagement attributed to the unions. Basically, anyone saying this claim doesn’t know what they’re talking about. At a glance, I could say I don’t, I haven’t taken a look at how this union has been managing their pension, but it seems like it’s a pass the buck. That’s what the statement says, it’s not our fault, we’re doing the right things, and we’re in trouble, and we need help, and we’re more than happy that this 86 billion is going to be going into rescuing these pension programs. It might sound harsh, the tone that I have or the tone that Ben has at this point in time, because it’s a challenging topic for us. We’re in the business of trying to make sure that our retirees are okay. Do we want them to have pensions that work? Absolutely. We’re not an advocate for pensions failing, we want them to work. We want social security to stick around, and we want these things for our retirees. It is a precedent. It is a precedent that’s really hard to negate, that if we’re gonna go ahead and spend these tax dollars towards saving pensions, that 16.8 trillion over there that happens to be never really getting much attention, which is our social security program, there’s no argument anymore to say we’re not going to be funding this. We’re definitely in a situation where there’s a lot of money getting put into the system. Trust me, if we have a huge portion of our population voting that if those public servants are accountable here, for the funding of these benefits, don’t perform, they’re gonna get someone else in there that will. Part of me is a little relieved. I’m like, oh, good, we’re not gonna have to worry about social security going away. Another part of me understands that part of the inflation equation is what is the inventory out there for our money, and we’re gonna have a conversation about what does that look like, the inflation conversation, and how is some of this going to work? There’s a lot of concern around this for us, because we want your dollar to have value.

Ben: I wonder how much of the inflationary piece of this is going to catch people on social security when they’re not doing inflationary increases. They don’t have to do them, they’re usually not as much as inflation is. I wonder if that’s gonna stagnate to allow social security to devalue itself. That’s my thinking. As we jump in here, I wanna go back to this article at the end and chat about some of the closing pieces of it. It’s interesting that here’s an article talking about social security pensions and it alludes to the conversion of the annuities. It’s funny, I’ve worked with managing money and major unions that put money into annuities specifically, purchase annuities with their funds, as a secondary version of a pension. Kind of funny that they do that.

Seth: It’s a smart move.

Ben: It was an interesting thing they’d done. Getting into #1—what we’re gonna do here is we’re gonna cite an article that I wanted to grab the 4 points they had here. They had this article in Kipling. It says, “Annuities just may be the broccoli of planning” and I think it’s great. If you can go and read this article, I’d encourage you. What we wanted to do today is a little different—take an actual article and inserting where they have points and thoughts, a little bit more fluff. Allow you to hear what’s going on in the conversation when we read this article. If you go back and rad the article, you’ll see what you hear, we may be able to add a little more breadth and depth here. The first thing that’s on everyone’s mind: annuities just be the broccoli of retirement. It’s meant to be the vegetable no one really cares about. The first thing is, what is the reluctance around buying an annuity? That’s a great conversation piece, right? There’s so much stuff out there that adds issues around annuities and why you might do it. The first objection we hear is fees. They’re expensive. We’re gonna get into that a little bit, but not all annuities have fees, not all annuities have high fees, and some have very high fees. You need to understand what those fees are, how they work and how they impact you and your account. If you’re buying a pure fixed annuity, which we think of something like a CD, it has a fixed interest rate, 2-3%, and you leave it in there. It’s tax-deferred. It’s a tax-deferred vehicle, just like an IRA, Roth IRA, whereas with a CD, if you put a non IRA money in there, you’re gonna pay tax each year. If you’re in allow tax bracket, people don’t care, it’s like buying a municipal bond, vs. a corporate bond, where it has regular income coming out. Some may not know, but some may know. If you don’t feel free to call. There’s a lot of reluctance around annuities, and some of them aren’t necessarily true, but some of them are. You have to know your positioning. We don’t say there’s good or bad investments, there’s just suitable and unsuitable.

Seth: We used to introduce every show that way. Anyways, we change. We grow. You mentioned call, and people can call at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. we’re talking about annuities; this is pt. 2. We got into the pension show last week and getting into why people don’t like annuities. That’s a bad word at the dinner table, and you have to go sit in the thinking chair.

Ben: It’s not the cool investment, right? My financial planner’s got me in this annuity, and everyone’s like oh, that’s wonderful. I think the author brings up a great point: people overestimate their ability to invest money wisely. Let’s say that again. People overestimate their ability to invest money wisely. Considering the last 12 year bull run market we’ve had, going on 13 with another 10 trillion in stimulus, 14-15 years of bull run, we’re gonna have pops down, hard hits, we had a pandemic, I think we’re gonna have another hit this year. We might go up 10% before we pull back here. We’re gonna see some shuddering: are we in another crisis? There’s a piece to this that is totally missing inside the conversation. This is why I said we want to add our depth. When I said that, you have to remember as an investor, you have a limited amount of time to confidently invest your money. It’s a limit, you don’t know when that limit is. 70, 75, 65, 80, I’ve said this story a bunch of times. I have a client who’s in his 90s, a former colonel, and he was interviewing financial planners and landed on me for various reasons. He said I’m not looking for someone to manage my money, I’m looking for someone to manage our future. There’s a point in time where I’m not gonna be able to do this. For someone as strong as he was, he did a phenomenal job. He realized in his own wisdom, that his abilities would be hampered by his inabilities to react, respond, invest, handle this. Now he’s 92 and I think about that and say to myself, I need to apply that humility in life that at times I need people who are gonna carry the torch forward. When you’re in a 13 year bull market, sometimes you might say to yourself, am I overestimating my abilities? Am I professional enough to manage the downside of this? We were doing a plan for a lady on the west coast. We always say, let’s not sell the stock yet, it’s gonna keep going up. You have 1/3 of your net worth of stock in a company you don’t work for.

Seth: It’s funny for us, but we understand the emotional attachment there. In hindsight, it’s been one of those completely traded sideways for the last year when the rest of the portfolios market has been going up. I wish he would just listen and do this—it’s a healthy thing for you to do.

Ben: We understand human nature—we keep moving on with that. That’s a big reluctance issue, I don’t want to give up control. It’s really control.

Seth: It’s not control if we take a look at it as well. It’s having a partnership in what your design looks like, it’s relying on and utilizing the resources that you have to be more successful. We do this in life, too. It’s delegating.

Ben: One thing about annuities, we talked about 3 guarantees: social security, pension, and annuities. One of the concerns people have is I’ll never live long enough to get the worth out of the annuity. That’s just only true if you do the annuity wrong, is the way I’d look at it. When I read that, I say to myself, that’s an interesting scenario, it could happen, but you really have to buy a life-only payment with no protection of your principal on death. You’d have to really go out of your way and make that risk. I can’t think of a client that we intentionally put their life existence, how long they’d live as the full outright benefit of finding the value of the annuity. We put a term to it. I’m gonna take a payment, but it’s gonna be at least 10 years, or as long as I live. The longevity takes over.

Seth: It’s a misunderstanding. Those 2 things exist inside the potential there: they’re only selecting something that’s a max payout in the annuity world. There’s different ways to structure the payout, lots of different ways. It would be a misalignment, but there would need to be some misunderstanding, and the answer to this question is what are the different ways and understanding the challenge, why people are just like it’s more complex than I’d like. Some of these are very complex and it takes time to work through these and it’s many conversations. A lot of the time, once that place is attained, or once you get to that place where it’s like okay, parts of what this is, I don’t understand all the stuff behind this, but I’m able to grab hold of how this is going to benefit what I really, truly need in retirement.

Ben: I’m not a big fan of spending money on ridiculous fees—I’m fairly conservative that way. Some of them have fees, some don’t. when you find the right fit for something, it’s kind of like a car. If you have 5 kids and you’re looking for a car, and you see this corvette up front, yellow or red, hot, and flashy, and you say I’m in love, I love that car. For some people this isn’t gonna resonate. Then you say to yourself I found this minivan, it holds all my kids, it’s perfect. It doesn’t have the hot and flashy, but it works. I can’t tell you, when you find the right program, and if you’re the person who says, I can utilize an annuity to substantiate income needs and drive an estate concern or any of the pieces you might have, it’s gonna feel like the minivan fitting a large family vs. the corvette. Sometimes people go to the stock market and buy the corvette and don’t wanna talk about the minivan.

Seth: That’s what they wanna show up to work and church at, let people know, this is how I roll.

Ben: It’s not flashy, not a sexy vehicle in the investment world, but I can’t tell you how many times—based on your needs or what you’re trying to accomplish to solve this problem. People say, sounds too good to be true. It’s unbelievable, but when you find the right fit for someone, it feels that good. You’re like I see how that works. Most people are so closed off to hearing things, there’s a standard way, there’s a process they’ve learned, taught themselves they have to buy stocks, bonds, mutual funds. If you could go out and buy your own annuity, if you didn’t need a broker to accomplish the find in that scenario, because they’re so complicated they require assistance, they’re foreign to people. They scare people and they become closed to it. That’s sad because my parents always told me, always be a sponge. Always be willing to learn and look for new things. How many training things do we go to? I’m the notebook guy, I look for tax classes, I travel al over the country and we go to these programs. I sit there and people are off hanging out, doing this, whatever, skipping out of these things early—I’m literally the guy standing there talking to the attorney, CPA, DJ. Digging is what I need to do, I need to know as much as I can to help my clients as things change.

Seth: There’s so many different approaches—how do you learn these things in a way that you can transfer that information and knowledge into your book of business or your client’s scenarios. I wanted to say something about too good to be true. I don’t know if this is you, but if you’ve ever bought life insurance, these are life insurance products. Some of the guarantees on them are the pieces that Ben will say ‘too good to be true.’ I’ve had people ask me, there’s no wrong question here, but let’s say you’re buying a million dollar term policy for $50/month and you die within the first year—a million dollars gets passed to the estate holder. That math doesn’t make sense. How could you do that? Insurance companies must be going out of business, because they’ve offered benefits that are too good to be true. The way insurance companies are invested, the way they’re able to provide products and services and stay profitable, it’s very large number equations, and there’s actuaries in the background that are taking care of these pieces. They’re far better at doing what they do than these pensions have, historically. That’s where we go back to the buck trying to get past in the pension piece from some of these actuaries. You can reach us at 855-226-8551. You’re listening to Money on Tap; we’re talking about annuities. We’re gonna come back and get into some good stuff, don’t go anywhere. Ben, how often do we get people coming into the office, saying they don’t have financial planner? How critical is it for us to put the pieces together and make sure that their future, their retirement is a successful experience. We talk about it all the time on money on tap. If that’s you, give us a call at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. We have the right planner for you: Ben, me, we’re here for your to get the plan together and make sure that that next step is right. You’re listening to Money on Tap; you can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. we’re gonna try to make some key points here. Ben, you were gonna talk about the PBGC. The pension benefits guarantee corporation.

Ben: PBGC. Seth, thanks for that. I mentioned earlier in the show that we’re gonna talk about the article again, but we’ll bring back some points next week that we talked about today. We’re gonna go through more of these things. I’d encourage you to read the broccoli article. There’s no more worries about running out of money. When you buy the annuity, you have insurance backing the company, reinsurance, and the state insurance pool backing this stuff too, up to a certain dollar amount. In my understanding, though it’s not layman’s, there are significantly more financial support than the PGBC has, except 86 billion dollars have been given, even though the law says we can’t. Seth, we do so much pension maximization conversations, how do you maximize your pension payout? There’s been a lot of conversations about will my pension exist in the future, cut down, diminished, will my pension organization go defunct and PBGC steps in and says we’ll pay you this much vs. the 2-3x more than you were getting? There’s a lot of worries and fears over that. There’s a really healthy conversation for you to have with a financial professional, whether or not your pension is strong. NH is top 10 worst pensions in the country. Those are large concerns, and people need to understand, this is the pension I have, if I did an annuity, this is what I’d get if they offered me a buyout. Pension companies have tried to get pensions off their books, offering people a sum of money to forego their offer. You may want to look at that and see if any annuity will match. I’ve had times where it’s beaten the pension company. I’ve had times where it’s come up lower, but those conversations should exist. You need to know where your best, secure source of income need to be. The 3 sources are social security, pensions, and annuities. If your social security’s in question and the government’s popping money to fund these things and you have pensions in payout, but by half, this is something you need to make sure you line out, because if we have a market crash and all your money is sitting there, that’s like building your house on the sand. If the market crumbles, you house crumbles. If the market crumbles, all the pension companies are investing in the market, and the PBGC is not gonna be enough with the membership fee. Over 30% of America is retiring, and they’re all shooting demand on social security and pensions like it’s never happened before. If you can hear the sucking sound of money in the pension systems, it’s larger than it’s ever been. These are major concerns, and this is where strategies come in, not just being a good investor, but a healthy retirement person. Those are things we need to do. Seth, I think out show next week about the 5 myths about annuities will resolve a lot of question for people.

Seth: I wanna leave you with a couple bright and sunny spots here. This is from the wall street journal, and that is retirees who are surrounded by their family and friends, who have a substantial check are much happier. That’s not us, it’s them saying that. There’s other research out there from a different organization that provides that 75% of retirees that have a pension-like or annuity-like income feel far more comfortable that they’re gonna be able to survive or do well, into their 90s in retirement. It’s that word that’s so critical in trying to get these foundational pieces in your retirement. At least have something—whether it goes up or down, you’re not gonna be subject to the whim of the market.

Ben: In that article, another article we didn’t reference from Kipling, it noted that 73% of retirees who own an annuity believe they’ll be able to live the retirement lifestyle they want, as opposed to 64% of retirees who don’t.

Seth: We talked about non-qualified money outside of your IRA or 401K, that allows for compounding to happen without taxation. It’s not exclusive. These annuities aren’t exclusive to non-qualified money. People take ROTH IRA money and put it into annuities, it’s one of the benefits for non-qualified money, but this isn’t an exclusive program. We use these in so many different ways. That’s one of the cool things about, one of the things we can do, we can use these to try to fund your forever home and still retain an asset that passes on 2 airs, and it’s incredible what we can do with these. If you know what you’re doing, make sure that you have something greater than you ever possibly imagined passing on. It’s not every situation that happens that way, but it is one of those things we see more often than not—these are products that work so well for different places in people’s retirement planning. You’re listening to MOT, we’re so glad we had an opportunity to spend this time with you. We can’t wait to meet up with you next week, where we’re talking about what are 5 myths you know about the annuity world. We hope it’s been helpful for you, take this and apply it to strategies you’re working through right now. If that’s you, give us a call at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. we’d love to sit down with you, be a voice of reason, help you know what retirement can look like for you.

SUMMARY

Ben Brayshaw and Seth Krussman are partners of Brayshaw Financial Group. Having questions about retirement and financial planning is normal, and the Brayshaw Financial Group is here to help! Reach out to Ben and Seth at 855-226-8551, or info@yourmoneyontap.com.

After retirement, there are 3 ways to gain guaranteed income to keep you and your family set for whatever may happen. Not sure what those are? Tune into this episode of Money on Tap to learn about annuities, pension and social security income and what that may mean for you in retirement.

Money on Tap provides an in-depth look at the best way to manage your finances as you get closer and closer to retirement. Hosted by Ben Brayshaw and Seth Krussman, this podcast is chock full of information regarding managing money, being smart with finances, and a beginner’s guide to stocks. This hour-long podcast is an easy listen and a great way to learn more about how to be smart with your finances.

MOT Show 161 Personal Pensions

Seth: Welcome to MOT. Money on Tap, your personal finance headquarters, where we bring out the professional’s experience and some fun. What we call 3-dimensional investing, utilizing insurance brokerage and fee-based planning, that's what we do on this show. We look at all sides of the issues and we bring a fully independent planning perspective to the table. Welcome to Money on Tap. We're so glad to have you aboard today. My name is Seth Krussman.

Ben: I’m Ben Brayshaw.

Seth: You can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. we’d love to talk to you. We always enjoy the call ins and appreciate you bringing your concerns to us, people that have personal finance going on in their lives and businesses. We’re here to help. Today’s show is built around…

Ben: Personal pensions. This show is one of those things where we’ve done a number of ones around it, it’s a little replay of some of it, but there’s been a lot of development in the conversation around pensions. This can be apart of the conversation about pensions and annuities – some people love em, and some people hate em. We’re gonna go through both of those arenas and discuss that. I think this is a relevant conversation because there’s been so much stuff since 2014 and that multi-employer reform that was initiated, and all the stuff going on, this was part of the election conversation. For a lot of people, this is ‘What does my future look like in my pension, social security, annuity’ because people need income in retirement. It’s gonna be a good listen for people.

Seth: One of the challenges in retirement is having security and understanding what the rest of your life after work looks like. Or you transition from being full time, even if you’re consulting and transitioning being full time out of that, there’s an inevitability that age happens, and we’re not gonna be able to turn on or off an income stream for ourselves. The pension idea has a huge resonance for anybody that’s looking towards this retirement corridor and having security and a sense of ‘we understand how life is going to look for us, and our income is going to be there for us.’ That’s one of the underlying tones we have to understand around this idea of pensions. We’re gonna get to that and what makes sense around that, but before we get too much into this show, we should go into Money in the News. First off, did you know that McDonald’s is in the news again? Making big waves out there with plant based burger options, and a partnership announcement for them.

Ben: I saw this article, and as much as eating McDonald’s doesn’t sound like the healthiest option, eating plant based? I don’t know. I haven’t been a beyond meat fan myself, but it’s okay. I tried it one time.

Seth: I ate McDonald’s yesterday, but it’s not gonna be on my menu every day. It’s on Warren Buffet’s menu every day.

Ben: I love that skit; he says 32 billion burgers sold? Someone’s lying. I love that line.

Seth: For us, it’s the breakfast on the road. We were trying to get out the door and we just couldn’t get our act together in time, so that’s what we did.

Ben: Beyond Meat has been a stock that’s been rolling all over the place, and now McDonald’s is partnering with them. It’s a 3 year global deal, which is huge. That’s a big deal. McDonald’s just launched their chicken sandwich, which is to compete with Chick Fil A.

Seth: We should mention that Yum brands have quite a bit in the works there because they have sausage on their pizzas, you could have Beyond Meat tacos, anyways, Beyond Meat, we talked about them in the news a couple years ago. Wondering, is this a safe alternative for us? People say its delicious, but there’s controversy out there.

Ben: Bill Gates is talking about making fake meat, and printed meat, I don’t know, it sounds so gross and so unhealthy.

Seth: Printed meat.

Ben: Yeah, you print it with the plastic printer. It’s something out of Star Trek. You push the button and meat appears; it’s kinda bizarre. It takes away the sin of McDonald’s. I will say a Big Mac or Quarter Pounder sounds good every day, prior to my heart attack. Next up, we have an article here with Wall Street Journal. It’s by William Boston, and new chauffer hailing service seeks to challenge Uber and Lyft in city rides. This is very interesting; there’s been a lot of craze around auto travel with COVID. People trying to stay out of airplanes, going back and forth. As businesses are going back into play, travel between Boston and New York City. It’s very chauffer like; it’s called Black Lane, and it uses limo-like vehicles, the person will get up, get out of the car, open the door and this is something that helps with the business travel. I like it, it sounds very interesting.

Seth: Look back a year ago. Pandemic hits, Uber was under distress. Now no one’s doing anything like Uber; I’m never getting in a car with a stranger. Then, life starts moving forward, people are looking at their options: do I get on the train, rideshare, do I take a nicer route for myself to get from work to wherever that might be – what are the price point things I thought was interesting is they’re looking around $399 if you’re traveling from New York to Boston. That’s ½ of an Uber or Lyft ride for that same ride. There’s a lot of value with what they’re creating.

Ben: I like the New York to Boston option. It’s appealing. A $400 trip from New York to Boston, that’s not cheap, but for the ease, the computer, phone, all the stuff you can still do, I can see this being a legit cost. The previous $700-800 trip is out of range: that’s each way.

Seth: The next time I fly into Logan, this is how I expect you to get me from Logan.

Ben: Wait on the side of the curb, they’ll be there. If they don’t, there’s a bus.

Seth: You can find which Uber or Lyft experience which you didn’t care for, and that’s who you’re gonna call?

Ben: Yes, everyone has one of those stories. You’re like, I don’t ever wanna be in this car again. My daughter wanted to throw up, it smelled so bad in that car. With that, let’s go to something else that smells bad, the Fed. James Mcintosh wrote this article on February 28^th, 2021. There’s a lot of interesting conversations on what’s going on with the Fed, we’re gonna talk about inflation and dig into that. There are two things here that he talks about-a strong economy is good for stocks, it means higher treasury yields. With the Fed trying to control raids and the manipulation here, having that average 2%, we were thinking about another article. They’re trying to have an average 2% inflation. There’s so much inflationary conversation about history and what it used to be; 2%. Inflation has been in the low 1’s. having that 2% inflation piece, it was higher than what we’re currently experiencing, for them to have a 2% average and to see 3.5% inflation is something we should be expecting to endure.

Seth: That seems to be the goal of the Fed, and the market doesn’t necessarily like it. It was an interesting relationship where the market is picking up and the economy is picking up, stocks are rising and yields are rising, they’re gonna follow each other up, and the market believes there’s been enough of that for them to not start to raise rates at this time doesn’t make sense. The fact is, that inflation number, there seems to be a challenge for them. They have a hard time pushing the economy up, even though they do all they can to help that situation. When the economy is improving and yields have been rising, if they don’t start raising rates, it’s one of those things that says we’re gonna have some trouble here in the future. That’s what the market was saying last week; they didn’t like it.

Ben: When we start having a conversation about the rates—when rates go down, tech continues to go up. It’s cheaper money for them to expand and grow on the tech side. It’s something we’ve experienced and seen, so lower rates were helpful in the technology developments we’ve utilized to maneuver and manipulate the business experiences we’ve worked over the last 12 months. As rates rise, tech is adversely affected. They go into another section here that discusses inflation expectations being buried in the treasury market. There’s a lot of conversation about what’s going to happen in the next 5 years in inflation, and how does that worry play into it? Those are interesting conversations, because you need to know when to go to various value assets that will intrinsically rise when rates go up, when tech is pushed back and pushed down, you have to understand there are other areas that can push up when there’s higher or lower inflation. This is an interesting article, worth the read. It talks about short and long impacts and how it affects the marketplace.

Seth: When the market seems to be savvy about understanding what is going on and one of the things I think the market believes here is that the major of inflation, or their understanding of the relationship of what really is happening with inflation is not clear for them. It’s not understood. We’ll get into that when we get into the inflation story; there’s a lot of components to that that I believe the market has understood and said you’re not using a correct major of inflation to grab hold of the big picture here.

Ben: The article goes: there are 2 new dangers – “first, bond yields might rise further without any further strength in the economy to compensate. Second, the marketplace may have switched from cyclicals to component stocks, a mix of electric vehicles, clean energy, cannabis, bitcoin, that finds its nexus in Tesla. That’s interesting; if speculative interest ends badly, the fall might drag down much of the rest of the market.” That’s worth some major consideration. Where’s the market going, are your cyclicals or speculative going to rise? That’s a big question.

Seth: You heard it here first, or maybe second. You’re listening to money on tap. We have a great couple of shows ahead of you, talking about pensions and it’s a big part of retirement for so many people, not only here in the states, but across the world. We’re gonna get into some really interesting facts and dig into some history and understanding, where does this idea come from, how is it transitioned into today, and hopefully we’re able to wrap your head around what today looks like in this pension idea. We’re going to eventually get into personal pension creation, because having stability in your retirement is so critical. You’re listening to Money on Tap. You can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com.

Ben: If you’re listening today and your questions are outside the box of state, financial planning, or any of the pieces we’re talking about, don’t forget Brayshaw Financial offers auto, home and business insurance. We have a department that handles all of that for you. Give us a call at 855-226-8551 or email us at info@yourmoneyontap.com.

Seth: Welcome back, you’re listening to Money on Tap. You can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. Today, we get an opportunity to talk to you about creating something, I think that’s where we’re going to try to get. Before we get there, we have to back up a couple places and build into that. Something we want to create is an understanding of how to have stability for your retirement dollars. This idea of having stability primarily comes to us early on, before any of us were born, in the form of a pension. That’s where we’re gonna start. We’re gonna talk about pensions, the current state of pensions, we’re gonna talk about where they come from, and what are the challenges right now? Not everything in this world of pensions is gravy. I think that’s one of the biggest challenges people in retirement – so many people have been pouring into whatever their job is. It’s a huge challenge for us, and it’s one we love to try and uncover and walk with you. Hopefully, we’re gonna build an understanding together that will help you create stability for yourself and really be the person that’s in control of your retirement outcome. That’s our hope for you, the best we can do. We’re gonna start off with letting you know you can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. What is this pension thing, first of all? Where does this come to us from? First of all, nobody knows. We’ll say that. Today, our understanding of a pension and what it is: it’s a retirement account that an employer maintains to give you a fixed payout for when you retire. It’s a defined benefit plan. Your payout depends how long you’ve worked for your employer, your salary, and when you retire. You can choose—most of the time you can choose between a lump sum payout or a monthly payout, and that’s called an annuity payment. Where this comes from, I already said no one really knows, but as far as we have any information around this, it’s been around for a long time. Going back to the Romans’ government leaders, from Caesar, early kings to modern kings and parliaments have developed a pension system. The original intention for this was to provide incentives for their soldiers because you’re gonna come and you’re gonna fight for us, and a lot of that relationship was based off of money, you know? These people were coming from wherever they were living, raising cattle, grain, farmer, and foragers to really trying t have an opportunity to improve their lives. They’re gonna put their lives on the line and go into battle.

Ben: This was a big, huge piece to almost every military scenario going back to Caesar. They use this as ‘Go die for your country and we’ll take care of your family.’ That’s a big concern for a lot of people, that’s why people buy life insurance, put away for retirement…it’s overall kind of paternal, I need to provide. That’s what we’re all innately born with. I think it’s really interesting that George Washington used this conversation during the Revolution to curtail a mutiny of the continental troops. He said ‘We’re gonna have a pension and your family’s gonna be cared for.’ This is something that’s been a part of the military world for a very long time.

Seth: You could say the country we live in together, we owe it to the pension, George Washington, and the intervention of that pension, ensuring those pensions to the colonists. Is that what you guys were? We’re in OR and we’re not part of the original 13 colonies.

Ben: Sorry all Oregonians, you guys have been through a lot in the last year.

Seth: We just need prayer, folks. So, that’s the beginning, right? It made a lot of sense. This idea of pensions is today that we don’t necessarily have embedded in military service, although there is that, it’s part of what the military service can offer. That idea was taken over into the public sector. What happened there was pretty much the same thing: you’re gonna come and you’re gonna work for us. How do we help give you some kind of security, some kind of tradeoff here? So that you and your family, all the service you’ve poured not this organization, can continue to live, and survive, and not have to worry about your income for the rest of your life. It’s the rest of your life piece, and your family’s life, that has been so key. It’s one of the things that the social security idea is our public pension system that we have here, that we talk about and we work with often. We’ve got Ken Barren who’s with us on staff at Brayshaw Financial Group that worked for 30+ years for the social security department, helping those folks out there before retiring and coming here with us. It’s a huge conversation we have here, trying to make sure that people are understanding what that is; structuring that in the best way possible for them and their family. That’s the idea and the understanding around, where does that come from? What does it mean? What does it transition to, and where is it at currently in the public arena? Right now in the public area, there’s a huge challenge out there. The biggest challenge of these pensions is that they do not have enough money to cover the obligations and the promise to the participants of those pensions.

Ben: You were right on there. One of the things here folks, and I don’t wanna scare anybody, that’s not our point regarding pensions. There’s a lot of turmoil around pensions, it’s part of the election process, as we mentioned earlier, the pension reform act of 2014, those are types of things that we’ve talked about on the show. Pensions are in question. There’s lots of fear. The concept of pension is thinking you’re gonna have a guarantee of pay to you in the future. It’s a promise to pay in the pension thinking, that’s what annuities are. Annuities are a promise to pay. We’re gonna talk about the similarities and differences the pros and cons. One thing people need is a simple retirement. They don’t wanna worry about when they’re 85 years old where money is going to come from. They want automatic care when it comes to their retirement funds. Should you be concerned about your pension? Are there going to be things that happen? The thing that’s putting so much pressure on the pension world is the number of retirees. There’s 320 million Americans retired, and in the next 20 years, there’s another 80 million Americans going to retire. That’s 120 million of 320 million retired. That’s 1/3+ of the country retired; we’ve never had that before. All those people are going to be looking for their pensions, their social security. That’s why when you get your social security, they say we’re gonna run out of funds in 2034; it’s the demand in pressure.

Seth: It’s not limited to the private sector, in terms of scarcity of funds in those pensions. It’s right there at the social security and that federal level as well. That’s an interesting conversation, probably a whole other show that we’ve had a couple times on that. It’s exactly what you were saying. This isn’t intended to be a scare tactic; hopefully, it’s a conversation that people are willing to have and understand.

Ben: Then you get into, my pension’s guaranteed. They are, it’s by the PBCG. It’s a nonprofit organization, and it guarantees your pension payment by private sector branches. It’s something that’s worth having some legitimacy. It’s an independent federal agency, overseen by the department of labor. There’s a legit backing piece to it. Under the 2014 pension reform act, a multi-employer has to apply to the federal government to make a change to your pension to get the permission to do that. The thing is, there’s so many of these pensions that are so underfunded, poorly managed, missing the mark, you know? If all of them start crashing, the PBGC does not have enough money. There’s not enough backing to do that. We’d have to print money just to make up the promises to do it, which is why the federal government is allowing pensions to be changed. The scary part of this is, a lot of people don’t realize that it’s not like ‘hey, I’m not retired yet, and my projected pension is XYZ, and now it’s gonna be 10% less.’ It’d be wonderful if it were that insignificant, or if the application were a 20-30% reduction request, but these things are 40-60% reduction request. We’re seeing these being approved pretty quickly as the applications go through.

Seth: You talked about the application process, and if you were to go out and google pension cuts, there’s quite a few resources out there to look at; I won’t talk about all of them. It was as of 2019, there had been 12 pensions that had applied, that had been granted approval for those pension cuts; taking a look at 2020, there was 2 more that those applications had been approved. This is composition roofer’s 42 pension plan. There’s the local union 237 pension plan, so there’s resources out there to take a look and see how many have applied. If you look at all the applications, and it’s not as if you want to know the rate of approval, it’s just that there are a lot of pension out there making an application. Even if they’re denied, they’re going back through that process to amend what it was that was not approved, or massage that application to get it through. The fact is, they do not have enough money to meet those obligations.

Ben: This is very scary, there’s people here; I’m looking at this article—pension cuts promised to retirees—this is back in 2017. It talks about a gentleman here; Joe Finley, he’s 63 at the time. He said he worked 12 hours a day and took weekend shifts so he could earn more credits for his pension. He talks about the sacrifice of time with his family and his children. It is the quintessential example of the American worker. His monthly benefit was $3500 and was reduced to $1900 that he was previously receiving. This is a very scary thing; the reduction was actually the equivalent of what his mortgage was on his 3 bedroom home, and now they’re reducing it. This was 2017. I don’t know anything about him today, but he was not alone because if he got the cut, others got the cut too. They talk about some people being slashed up to 60% of their pension benefits. It says benefits will be cut 20% on average, but some are expected to be cut up to 60%. That’s financially devastating, and something that we don’t know how to manage, because this is just the multi-employer pension reform act. They haven’t even discussed the individual pension reform act, and what should you be doing with your current pension, your pension buy out, any of those conversations are regular conversations we have all the time. Hey, I don’t even know how well backed my pension is. If you think about how hard it is for companies to stay in business, and how hard it is for them to keep a pension going, and how volatile the stock market is, it almost seems ridiculous that companies offer pensions. They don’t have the wherewithal to run your future. There’s a lot of push because we’re just on the multi-employer pension reform act; there’s going to be an individual pension reform act, because the demand and pressure on these organizations to pay out those funds—it’s not like they’re paying it out over a long period of time. They’re paying those things, but it’s an instant demand of all these baby boomers saying hey, I need my pension. You’ve got all these people needing their pension – 20k a day, it’s a monstrous number, and they’re all looking for their payouts, they’ve been waiting for this day. The management of those numbers is going to be excessively complicated. If you look at the stock market, you have people talking about bubbles, we’re some people that have concerns about long term longevity and quality of the market, being positioned properly and looking at where growth’s going to be; you don’t think pension companies are? They’re investing in the same market we are. Those are real concerns, trying to make the one piece that you think is the foundational element in your portfolio, which is sacred to you and secure, it just might not be. This is a big concern, because we like pensions, we love the story of income, because it’s all about how much income you need, the expenses you have, and the offset of those. That’s where it all comes together and you say hey, I’m okay. I’ve got the retirement income here, this pension…we meet people all the time with pensions galore, $100 from this company, $500 from this one, I worked at this company for 20 years, and that’s $2500 a month. You’re like, I don’t know if I can say I’m guaranteed it, because I’m not guaranteeing it, that’s what the financial plan’s saying—how much faith do you have in your long term pension is a big question.

Seth: Folks, you are listening to money on tap. You can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. If you have a pension, you probably have a question. A lot of times when people call us up and we’re trying to put the pieces together, that is a complicated piece of understanding that you need to try to have before trying to build out other places within your financial plan. That’s what we do at Brayshaw Financial Group. You can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. We’d love to help you out. We’re gonna take a quick break and we’ll be right back. Seth Krussman, Brayshaw Financial Group is our company, and we bring to you Money on Tap. We have a lot of fun doing this show. One of the things we love about doing Money on Tap is that our goal for you to have access to have the financial planning world, what do we think, how do we do, what are we talking about? Raising the bar for your financial education, it’s so critical. That’s what we’re doing here. The other side of this is, we’re financial planners. If you’re looking to work with a financial planner, if you want to have that playbook for you to understand the important things right now, how you’re going to get to your goal, how to retire, that’s what we’re doing here. If you have $250k of investable assets, give us a call. It’s free to you and it is worth your time to pick up that phone and give us a call and discover what complete wealth management looks like. Ben and I are excited about the opportunity to partner with you and give you that financial plan that’s going to make the next step so much better understood and get you where you need to go. Back to Money on Tap with Ben and Seth. Welcome back, you’re listening to Money on Tap. You can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. My name’s Seth Krussman and I’m joined by Ben Brayshaw. We’re both financial planners at Brayshaw Financial Group. We’re talking about pension plans, annuities, love em or hate em. We’re talking about the challenges throughout the pension history. One of the names out there that hid headlines was GE. They froze their pension. That was a huge headline. We talked about pensions on a couple of shows; at least in money in the news about that, but it froze its pension benefits for more than 20k employees. The goal there was a solution for them to set aside $5 billion to cover funding requirements through 2022. These were to help trim a short fold as much as $8 billion. To understand that, what does that mean, the people who already began receiving pensions were given pensions. They started a lump sum for everybody who hadn’t received pensions of 100k. The lot is 20k people, there’s a very different understanding of what the future’s gonna look like.

Ben: The thing about pensions is that they’re a wonderful hope, and there are very few pensions that are overfunded and running a successful—there’s not many of them. When there’s a deficit in a pension, corporations come up with the deficit. If they say it’s gonna make 5% and it only makes 2%, they need to come up with that difference to keep it on track, on pace. That’s a huge vulnerability.

Seth: I love our governor in the state of OR, it’s Kate Brown. It was a couple of years ago that the Oregonian paper talked about the public pension here, it’s hers. They were talking about the underfunding and underperformance of pension. It was averaging something like 5% or something like that; I don’t remember what the number was. Governor Brown said, ‘All we have to do is earn a better return on the money.’ You’re right. That’s all you have to do. Go do it! So many people try to figure out, how do we do that? Do we change the company we’re using to invest those assets? Whoever’s investing the assets is trying to change them to get the net number the plan needs. It isn’t easy, folks.

Ben: It’s unbelievable. It’s like ‘hey, we’re not gonna come up with more money to fund this thing properly, we’re gonna come up with someone who can invest it better, who can change our tables and say we’re gonna use a higher investment rate, so we don’t have to change it.’ The truth is that these plans have gone underfunded for the most part, for way too long. That’s a big problem. What I’ve found is, looking at these plans and where the market’s going and what people are doing; a lot of people are planning on some sort of reduction in the payout. Some of the problems that have happened is a lot of people do pension maximization payouts. They’ll select the max payout for a single life, and they’ll use the difference between that and a joint life payout. Let’s say your payout is 1000 a month, but the join payout with your spouse is 750. There’s 250 a month difference. People have taken a portion of that 250 difference or savings and bought life insurance to reinsure the value of the pension and the asset to the spouse. Sometimes that’s a net benefit—they get to keep more than the 750; spend 800 and use 200 on insurance. The problem is one of the unknowns is that if you did that and your pension gets cut, can you still afford the insurance? If you take a 40-50% cut, there’s some real risk inside that that hasn’t ever been properly disclosed, considering what’s happened; you couldn’t predict most of this stuff. We’re just on the front lines of predicting. People will say ‘for years you’ve been talking about this stuff.’ I’ve been talking about it for 2 decades now. It’s just in 2014 they created a law where companies should address that. People would tell me ‘my pension’s guaranteed,’ but more ways are gonna come, you’ve got 120 million Americans looking for their pension, social security and so forth. Those are enormous concerns that are getting bigger and bigger. The writing’s on the wall that we’re gonna have more and more things to do. Seth, you mentioned GE. I love the phrase ‘GE is as American as apple pie.’ Thomas Edison founded it, the company’s at the core of our history. Boom, it’s halted. There’s a constant push on this piece. What are people doing? That’s the big conversation here. We talk to people all the time, and we assess the financial astuteness of where people are at about pensions. We try to educate them about pensions. If they wanna rely on their pension, we usually tell them on a planning standpoint, don’t use 20-40% of the income number as something you count on. Consider that the excess. Whatever you need, use some variable of that pension inside there. I don’t necessarily feel the same way about gov’t pensions, like military. It’d be hard pressed for them to bash the military pension. I’d use a lower percentage, but I’d use one. And social security, people walk in the door and say they’re scared; oh, social security’s not gonna be there for me. People intrinsically know there’s some major problems here. If you’re listening and saying, yeah, that’s how I feel. If you’re in the middle group and you’re saying, ‘something’s going to remain; I’m gonna get that going as soon as possible.’ I’ve noticed in all the documentation I’ve read is that it’s kind of that over 80 years old, seems to be the threshold that they don’t institute the same cuts, or no cuts at all. It’s that person so far beyond—they must be some perspective that we’re not gonna touch people in their 80s because they only have a few years left, I have no idea what it is that’s driving that, but it’s interesting. I’m looking at United—pension change after pension change. On the list, there’s some that are denied, but not many of them, there’s a lot going on in the pension world. One of the things we’ve done a lot for people, and it’s more of saying who does investments vs. who doesn’t? The investment world, who handles managing assets, insurance companies who handle annuities, people say ‘I don’t like annuities.’ Annuity is being guaranteed a pay. Whether it’s on death, life, there’s all sorts of variable types of annuities, from fixed to fixed index, to variable annuities, whether you want market or no market. In reality, we’ve talked to a lot of people who say, ‘I need income, and I need as much certainty you can bring to the table.’ Annuities have been a good choice for a lot of people who are being offered buyouts, who are saying ‘I want as much guaranteed income as I possibly can’ a lot of times we’ve used the annuities as much as we can. For the most part, we do investments, assets, we do insurance, we do all those scopes, that’s why we call it 3 dimensional investing. Brokerage, fee based planning. Those things come together naturally, and the balance of different types of assets can empower your financial planning more than it can take away from it. We believe this, but whether you believe it with us as well is that it is the cornerstone of everything we do is to say no one answer solves everything. Insurance is never gonna be your entire solution. You’re not just gonna go buy stocks, bonds and mutual funds and be just fine. We don’t believe that, we believe all these coming together to empower you the most. For the person looking for securitized, pension based income, with the certainty of all that’s going on in the pension world, whether the PGBC can actually back all this is a whole other thing. If every dollar went kaput, there’s not enough money in the FDAC. The US government would have to step in. financial collapse, those are big deals. Insurance companies offer contracts. Banks go out of business; insurance companies get gobbled up by bigger insurance companies. I think my money’s better in that scenario, not in the hands of a pension company, not an annuity company, that’s just my belief. Whether they both go under, the argument can be rattled 15 different ways.

Seth: What’s the solution here? We’ve talked about the solutions behind the veil of a pension. That’s great to understand; what are they doing to mitigate this. People are trying and doing their best to understand that. From our perspective, our most simple solution is to start working with somebody. If it’s us here at money on tap, wonderful. We love that. You can call us at 855-226-8551 or reach out to us at info@yourmoneyontap.com. You can sit down with Ben and I, and we’ll talk about the intricacies of your pension and how that applies to you and your plan. At the end of the day, a plan is something you need to want and have, to understand some of the things we’ve been talking about here, more specifically to you and how it relates to you. Ben’s talking about having a buffer of 20-40% of whatever your pension is. How does that affect the underlying finances and the rest of your assets, whatever those might look like. Ben’s talking about 3 dimensional investing, getting this 30k foot view so that you can see with clarity, all of these pieces coming together to work for you. We believe in the power of planning around your investments. It’s great for us and fun for us to talk about all these separate entities and how do they work, but at the end of the day, we wholeheartedly believe in the planning process, the 3 dimensional investing process we’ve put together for you to know what that next step could be. Should be. For you. We want you to have a better understanding and through better understanding of this process and what it is you have, that will create clarity for you. The understanding is what creates that piece for you. It’s not them telling you guaranteed this, guaranteed that. It’s you understanding what does this mean, how does this work. And having somebody come alongside you and help you with that, it’s so critical. That would really be the step 1 in any kind of solution for you here. It’s getting that understanding. We wholeheartedly believe in the 3D process here because it takes into account all the pieces. We’re not just gonna lean on one piece, we’re gonna bring them all to you. You’re listening to Money on Tap. You can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. We want to appreciate you for allowing us to be who we are and have fun with what we do, which is financial planning. We’re also on Facebook at /3Dinvesting and Twitter at BFG_LLC. We can’t wait to make it a great day and a great life with you here on MOT.

SUMMARY

Ben Brayshaw and Seth Krussman are partners of Brayshaw Financial Group. Having questions about retirement and financial planning is normal, and the Brayshaw Financial Group is here to help! Reach out to Ben and Seth at 855-226-8551, or info@yourmoneyontap.com.

On this episode of Money on Tap, Ben and Seth define the meaning of some really important retirement terms, such as ‘annuity’ and ‘pension.’ Curious to know how those affect your retirement plans? Tune into this episode to find out how to make your money work best for you, even in the long run towards retirement.

Money on Tap provides an in-depth look at the best way to manage your finances as you get closer and closer to retirement. Hosted by Ben Brayshaw and Seth Krussman, this podcast is chock full of information regarding managing money, being smart with finances, and a beginner’s guide to stocks. This hour-long podcast is an easy listen and a great way to learn more about how to be smart with your finances.

MOT Show 160

Seth: Welcome to MOT. Money on Tap, your personal finance headquarters, where we bring out the professional’s experience and some fun. What we call 3-dimensional investing, utilizing insurance brokerage and fee-based planning, that's what we do on this show. We look at all sides of the issues and we bring a fully independent planning perspective to the table. Welcome to Money on Tap. You can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. We're so glad to have you aboard today. My name is Seth Krussman, and I’m here with Ben Brayshaw. This week, we’re gonna have a conversation with you about a solution if we do get into a bear market. We’re gonna talk about a bull market, bear market. Last week we talked about the bubble, and what if things go up, down, or sideways. People want to protect that in a bear market, which is inevitable and part of everybody’s journey through investing. How can we help you? It’s what we’re here for. We’re planners and partners at BFG. As financial planners, we have these conversations and prepare for these periods where the market isn’t doing what we want it to do. We’d love to say the market’s gonna go up all the time, but that’s not the way it works. You can do some things that are different than just sitting there and writing it out. You can sit there and write it out, but something that should be approached from that perspective is what do you do when the market doesn’t go up? We’ve gone through this last year. 2020 was interesting. We’ve had one of the longest bull markets that we’ve ever been able to record. It’s one of the longest ones I’ve ever lived through. Maybe that’s a difference for you, Ben. We also went through a bear market this last year. Maybe you don’t even realize that as you’re doing whatever you’re doing. Getting a mask on your face and your kid’s face, are you gonna have a soccer game or not? we went through a bear market this year, and there are some things that happen in a bear market. You may be investing differently, what do people with wealth do when they get into a bear market…we’re gonna talk about what’s different about a bear market cycle, and what’s different today and from a past perspective. You’re listening to MOT, it’s time for Money in the News.

Ben: First up here for Money in the News, we’ve got Google and Facebook trouble down under will spread. This is a nice WSJ article written by Jackie Wong. It’s interesting what’s going on here. The Australian parliament is now dealing with a negotiation. I like that scenario that they put, the fact that they’re proposing a law here, but it’s a negotiation. Basically, with these algorithm changes that are going on in the world around news, they have to disclose what they’re doing to allow certain things to pop to the top vs. others. This is the crux of – we have a lot of debate in the US about news, what’s relevant, stuff that gets pushed to the side vs. others that to – I’m proud of Australia for implementing something going on here to control the news outputs so that all of a sudden, someone in superpower says we’re gonna turn this off or on, shut this media outlet off or on, those are big deals right now.

Seth: FB and Google are top of the list for pretty much any platform out there for pushing news at you. The algorithm piece is something that they hold pretty closely to. They’re not usually telling everybody out there how this is gonna work. The Australian parliament would like them to be very upfront with this, and also start paying for news. If you have a news link out there, and you create content, basically Google and Facebook, whoever it is, will have to start paying for that content. I don’t feel bad about that at all. I think if you’re a content creator, A) you should be able to understand how things are put at the top, and if they’re using your content at one of those locations to attract more business, which is what they’re about. Why shouldn’t you receive some of what it is—my gosh, look at the market cap on these companies, it’s astronomical how much money they’re making and funneling through. There you go. Maybe this is something that starts in Australia and winds up on our shores soon.

Ben: There’s a lot to learn here. I don’t care what side of the aisle you sit on here. There’s tech that’s really dangerous. We have a scenario here and you’ve got this organization banning this company, you’ve got people that are boycotting that company, there’s a lot of wind around all this stuff, and the control. People are afraid, that’s all this means. They’re afraid of the big tech world because we’re constantly becoming more dependent on it. Rightly so. If information you’re trying to get isn’t available or it’s being shut off or down, that’s a big problem. That is the problem with monopolies, that’s why we have laws against it. Next up, Seth, we have another WSJ article. We have 3 today, folks. These are the headlines. I love going through these different things because some of them are pretty funny; when you think about the sarcastic world we live in. This one is Texas Livestock reels from the storm and outages. This is by Jacob Bungee.

Seth: It’s news, and it’s money. We don’t think about what could be happening in the livestock industry when you have a huge storm moving through the US. I see families playing in the snow with their children. This industry sees power outages, livestock and feeding. They call them feed lots that they can’t process. They can’t get them pushed through the process of—I don’t wanna get into the details. You have a bunch of cattle they’re having to euthanize out of kindness because they’re sitting there not being fed and processed.

Ben: They’ve got orange groves freezing, pipes freezing. I’m gonna go to the end of the article. The article’s quote is the leading energy state has no power. Mr. Miller said, that’s crazy. When you think about Texas, you think about oil. Texas has done a great job of solar panels and renewable energy. The solar panels are freezing, the wind farms are frozen and they’re not operating. The only thing they have to use is fossil fuels. Because they’ve limited the fossil fuels, they’re rotating various sectors. They’re turning power on and off for different areas, so people can have heat for periods of time. They’ve had so many problems that even the time periods they said they’d turn it back on haven’t been able to happen. If anything, the irony of green energy, it’s kind of like when Al Gore was supposed to go to DC and speak on global warming in April and there was a couple inches of snow, which was random, and then they changed it to climate change. No matter what the scenario is, it seems like God might have a little humor here. Knowing the green energy push we have—I was looking at a picture the other day of a fossil fuel helicopter spraying fossil fuels on the wind farm to get it going again. I’m thinking to myself, we’re never gonna be energy independent. That’s the irony in which this all gets resolved in various scenarios. If I did learn anything, going completely fossil fuel 0% isn’t possible. What if we have chaos in our skies, let’s say you have an eruption from a volcano and there’s ash in the skies? Do they work at 50% capacity? I have no idea, but the world has all sorts of things that create problems that can then, if we’re depending on one thing or another—I’m all for clean energy, I just think that we need to be careful that we don’t create ourselves so clean energy that we’re without power and dying, or our military can’t operate our vehicles, for the same reason I felt like we needed to be energy independent from the middle east, when that happened. I’m for energy independence, we can’t be dependent on 1 thing.

Seth: We get to have some perspective, don’t we? There’s always going to be a turn the corner, look at and face and say, we didn’t plan for that. How could we have seen that coming? Again, that was Wall Street Journal. Another article in the WSJ by Alexander Yakobovich, which has to do with online trading. There’s an online trading platform that’s gonna be really civic in March; it’ll let users bet on yes or no questions. I think it’s interesting they put it in terms of betting. For instance, how could this work? If they had existed last year, you could’ve asked users whether a COVID-19 vaccine would be approved by the end of 2020 and bet on that. It seems absolutely incredible to me, that they’re looking to be able to do that with an online trade.

Ben: It’s really just a gambling site, right? When you start adding stuff like that beyond stocks—I would define anything as gambling that doesn’t have a real expectation of a long term investment, a legit investment.

Seth: It is more of a bet, right, because you’re not holding onto something long term, you can’t ride it up or down. You’re holding onto it, it’s a one and done, which seems a lot more like betting. The people that have developed this is interesting. They’re 24 years old, MIT grads and they have some places that I’m familiar with, Bridgewater and Associates is one of them. What’s more interesting is that the name of the platform is Kashi, which is an Arabic word for ‘everything.’ It refers to the breadth of topics it questions and covers. What would not be available for you to place a bet on? You wouldn’t be able to bet on elections, things like war, those are things that they aren’t going to include for the opportunity to do that. The idea of having an all-inclusive betting site, they will be regulated as well. They will have to fall in line with whatever the regulators can or can’t do. It’s an interesting concept.

Ben: I would liken this to, someone would say to me, if I went to a boxing match and placed a bet, that’s gambling. I’d say that’s the case, but you could literally be a sponsor for a boxer, right? You could buy into the company, the organization of that boxer. You could be an owner for that boxer. That’s an investment because you believe in the long term outcome of success. If you go to the match, and you’ve got no stake in it, and you place a wager, that’s gambling. People do that with stocks all the time. They’re not interested in owning the company, the software, owning the rights, collecting revenue…if you say here’s a stock I’m gonna make a quick buck on, that’s gambling in the stock market. I’m sure there’s people listening to this and saying, am I gambling? Because that’s not what I wanna be doing. That’s where an investor comes in. I’m excited about our show because we’re gonna talk about bear markets, how to invest and look at bear markets. This is one of those things; I think it’s an interesting company, KKR is someone we’re very familiar with. They bought out a lot of different companies and financial firms. You could have an investment in a gambling company, or you have an investment in a trading company. I’m not sure how this pans out yet, but it’s gonna be an IPO that comes out. Buyer beware, hardcore. It’s kinda sad, you can’t gamble on whether or not we’re gonna go to war with China.

Seth: You’re listening to Money on Tap. You can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmeonyontap.com. we’re gonna talk about bear markets, how do you invest in a bear market? We’ll be right back.

Ben: For a number of our listeners, you might have a lot of questions. We’re offering Zoominars, which are webinars over Zoom where we have top experts: social security, financial and estate planning experts who you can speak with. We’re also having webinar based Zoominars where we’ll have multiple groups, and you can be a part of that and enjoy that coming up in the new year. Reach us at 855-226-8551 or email us at info@yourmoneyontap.com to schedule your Zoominar.

Seth: Welcome back, you’re listening to Money on Tap. You can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmeonyontap.com. Today we’re gonna talk about one of the least fun things, depending on your take on it. It can be terrifying, in terms of investing and retirement, which is what most people are doing. We’re talking about a bear market. Why don’t we start by saying what it is? A bear market is a 20% or more drop in stock prices. There’s usually a period of time where that has stayed below. In the very recent history, we just went through a bear market. So many don’t realize we went through a bear market because it was so fast. It was over in a month, two months. Traditionally, when bear markets have happened, which was most recently 2007-2009, it was about 2 years before the market climbed it’s way into the next bull market, where it’s going up. In terms of how long or how much, it’s about 20% is what the measurement is there. It’s traditionally been a few years that it’s taken. Today, we’re in a different place. We’re gonna talk about that, we’re gonna talk about traditional ways that you’d want to invest in a bear market to try to offset some of those losses or take an opportunity to find value and places and spaces in the market that would allow you to call it a hedge, hedging your money and putting It in a different place that would perform or outperform what the rest of the market is doing.

Ben: I think what’s really interesting about this whole bear market conversation that everyone is having, and it’s not because we see it an inevitable fact tomorrow. We see the writing on the wall in some sectors, we’re seeing growth. We talked about this last week, Russel and semi-conducting space, some of them are justified. We’ve gone to a completely technological work from home world, what would we expect other than that? That’s the expectation that we’re gonna see growth in those areas. The Russel-2000 and looking at small cap and so forth, I would expect that too in the tech world, because that’s where technology is coming out, security technologies, there’s a new demand at a volume that is unprecedented in those sectors. I also think you have to look at what’s oversold. A lot of people went to the energy sector because they sold out of technology. The question is, are people coming back, where’s money flowing? That’s where we come into that first point. The sector analysis is absolutely crucial. The number 1 issue is, what sectors are you investing in, and how does that play into your overall goals, or your overall expectations, or your overall thoughts on what the market’s gonna do?

Seth: There are some popular strategies to pay attention to. One of the no brainers here is what a lot of people rely on, which is selling. If I own something and it starts to go down and if I can sell it today and put it into cash and wait for it to come back or look for another opportunity, that’s selling out, or we call it going to cash. Some people like to flight to safety would be another one of those terms, where people go into the bond market as an attempt to still have something that they’re holding onto, giving them a return, but it’s not Apple, which is now down 50% where it was yesterday, or last month. That’s one of those things where when we take a look back on the history of bear markets, it’s not uncommon for the market to lose 50% of what it was last year, or wherever the high was. That makes sense, going to cash. I’d rather hold cash, come back, and play another day. Another technique is going into defensive strategy, and there are companies that have traditionally, and these types of companies that you’d want to own through pullbacks, and some of those might be food, alcohol and tobacco has been a very popular place for people to put their money, but also the staples like toiletries, paper products, these are places – people are gonna buy toothpaste, toilet paper, or these types of things, so why would I go and try to hold onto something like that when it’s something people are gonna like and want, instead of these other growth companies or the tech sector. That’s what Ben was talking about.

Ben: I think one of the things that people need to look at when they look at their sectors, and I look at my spreadsheets constantly, and I’m looking at 50-100 day moving averages. I’m seeing trends, and there’s the investor who’s long term, this company is gonna be huge one day, don’t call me when you’re having a bad month, quarter, year, I’m in. there’s people investing to maximize gain and flow, but when you look at these 50-100 day average, you’re looking at every day’s close for 200 days, you’re looking at the line graph and is it tilting north or south, are you moving below that average? That’s an indicator. You have to understand that everyone out there who’s an actual trader or money manager, they’re watching these trends, because people trade on trends. If a trend is up for a week, they follow it for two. There is a variable trading strategy out there that you can almost pigeon anyone into. They’re all watching technical analysis. They’re looking at the charts, data and hardcore information that people are trying to evaluate does this make sense for the future. You may be the average investor riding this wave since March 23^rd, I can’t tell you how many people ear saying, you won’t believe how much money I made in the stock market this last year or 11 months. Everyone thinks they can trade stocks; I have a 17 year old son who’s learning this, and he’s making money in the stock market. He says, I have friends that think they’re Warren Buffett. When the market’s good, it appears easy, because all the work is when the market goes down, and I think that’s the hard part because they don’t know when it happens, how to do it, or how to prep for it. I look at various recessionary stocks—I was doing research on articles and one of them had 10 assets in it. One of them was Kellogg as an investment. I’m not recommending Kellogg, but it was in the article. I’m looking at the 5 year chart and wow, it’s really down. It’s not as down as it was in 2019, but it’s down. It’s down over the one year too. It’s not as low as it was on March 23^rd. I’m looking at all these moving pieces, and it’s ironic that Kellogg is listed here, it’s an interesting indicator because McDonalds, Walmart, you start talking about these companies and say yeah, Walmart is a real indicator, it’s a safety stock. Are those the only stocks? You made the point about other stocks that have no change from safety stocks.

Seth: Who would’ve thought that when the market pulled back like it did in February or March, that technology was going to be the flight to safety. People came to and started buying technology like they never had before. Zoom is one of those stocks that people bought, but it was a make-sense scenario why they’d want to own that during a pandemic. Because everybody wasn’t flying, people were like get out of the airline and cruise line stocks, we’re gonna get to work and how are we gonna get to work? Technology. There’s gonna be a lot of changes. We couldn’t have told you that. It was incredible to witness what we did, but traditionally, there’s sectors that we pay attention to. That’s one of the ways people can invest, knowing which sectors to invest in, technology was one of those that people invested in. It’s typically one you want to get out of because it changes so much. People would traditionally go with health care stocks. No matter how the economy is doing, people still need to go to the hospital and get taken care of, unless it’s a pandemic and people get all their surgeries cancelled. All those elective surgeries were put on the sideline. It’s been a bizarre year, but we’re here to talk about the possibility of something pulling back, but we’re not predicting, we’re just having fun. Gold, silver, platinum, those have been traditional places where people have gone during a recession. Gold has been a place where people have traditionally gone. When does gold do really well? As a commodity, it does well when the market does a pullback, because that’s one of the places that’s considered a flight to safety. Does it have to do well? No, it doesn’t.

Ben: You make some really strong points on the pullback thing. I think healthcare and precious metals are probably 2 of the most boring investment spaces, but they’re great indicators. I like precious metals, and if I look at the last 12 months, I’m looking at the gold ETF, and we’re sizably down. We’re probably down 10+% from that high. That’s year to date, but over the last year, we’re barely up. There are some pieces here we need to evaluate. I’m not talking about you should go invest in gold and buy that. What I’m saying is, if you’re not using indicators to evaluate your position in the market, you’re going to get caught off guard. You’re gonna be the person who hears about it last. You’re never gonna make the right call. You’re gonna sell and then watch the market go up and be like, why didn’t I stay in longer? You’re human, you’re just like me, I say the same thing. If you don’t understand that we’re fallible, that’s an issue. I also look at the technical indicators, and I owned a stock, and I made a good amount of money on it. I showed my son, I thought, man, I never thought my stock would do this good, and I sold my principal out of it. The stock continues to rise and I’m like holy smokes, he was laughing about it. Forget that, don’t ever invest in anything that’s doing that to your core money. I told the broker, now I’m playing with the bank’s money. You have a random win, pull your capital out. Let the bank’s money and the stock market run for you. What do you do with that money? How do you invest that? Take it back to a core position. When you take the capital out, the story is this: what is the market doing? The healthcare sector? The precious metal sector? If it’s pulling back, it means people are pulling out of precious metals to put into other stocks. You wanna own everything when everyone’s afraid in the precious metal space. You wanna own the healthcare sector when it’s down, not when it’s up. You don’t wanna be following the reverse trend; buying things when they’re high and selling when they’re low. You have to be willing to take profits. Never lose sleep because you took profits. Never lose sleep because you made money on something and you didn’t make the top. When you make your dollars and you’re happy, you move. You should have an idea of what to expect out of that stock before you hit the buy. At that point, you’re an investor. When you don’t know what you expect out of that stock, you’re not an investor, you’re a gambler. Those are the pieces that catch people off guard. If you don’t have an expectation of what you want out of it, you’re stuck in the stock independently, you have no idea when to exit correctly. Know what you want, how you’re gonna get it, and how you’re gonna reallocate. Those are the success markers of a bear market, that’s coming like a lightning bolt.

Seth: You’re listening to Money on Tap. You can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. We’re talking about being an investor, investing or remaining an investor in a bear market when it’s going down. How do you do what you need to do as an investor during this time. We’re not there but you said maybe in the next 6 months or so. You really stepped out there and called it; we’ll see. You can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. We’ve been talking a lot about what is a bear market, how do you be thinking about your investments in a bear market and understand how not every bear market is the same, but as an investor, traditionally, there’s places you could go to hedge yourself, and still be invested, and if you’re looking for and trying to invest for retirement, these are critical components for you to understand. We’re gonna talk more about that, we’re gonna try to land this ship with how to be successful and how to hedge yourself and still be okay through retirement. Most of the time that’s what we’re talking about here. In terms of where to invest—those have been places where utilities have been one of those sectors. Why would utility stock do well? Because A) you have to keep the lights on, so you’re gonna be paying those bills and they also traditionally have a dividend. Why would that be important? What’s a dividend and why is that important for someone that’s retired.

Ben: That’s the income yield coming off a stock. A lot of people are looking for yield in retirement. We’ve talked about baby boomers, we talked about the movement in flight to safety, we’re talking about recession, these are concerns and issues, we see something gearing up. I don’t know that we have a recessionary period coming up, I don’t see a pullback coming. Recession is a 20% hit. I don’t see that. Do I see a 10-15% pullback, yes, and I think it’s going to be sector-based, and flight based. It depends on how the dominos fall on this things. When you’re talking about the dividend and yield, there’s a lot there. When we talk about baby boomers, 45 million people retired right now, and we have about 85 million more to retire after that, finding equity stocks that have high yield has been a high demand. We’ve seen that trend on a number of charts. MFS has a sheet that says over 20 years you can earn over 20% on stock caps, it’s right on their numbers. Anyone interested in that chart, I’m happy to share that with you. Give us a call, email us. You’ll see a constant rise over the last 15 years or so in demand of those large cap stocks, because they have an indication of the small cap world, though they can be just as volatile or risky as any stock out there, but they have yield. We talk about blue chips, stocks, all that, we’re talking about Exxon, Chevron, we’re talking about big companies, like DJI components for the most part. We’re seeing that interest because a lot of the bond yields are so low. I read an article that junk bonds were starting below 4% in history, it’s crazy. I don’t wanna own a junk bond, that’s not in my story. That’s a crazy scenario because interest rates have dropped so much. That’s why there’s a large flock to high yield equities, because you could own a company that doesn’t sell junk bonds that may pay a better dividend because you’re paying income in retirement. As we deal with all these sectors, oversold, overbought, and trying to evaluate that space, it’s very complicated. We’re going out of an easy trading environment and we’re entering a difficult one. I was talking to a client the other day, he’s like, 5 months ago, you had 30 stocks you like, today you have 10. It’s getting tighter, it’s getting more complicated. Those are real conversations that exist inside this world because that’s the new reality we’re dealing with. I’m not looking at energy stocks that are trading at 20% of their value a year ago, you know? I’m not looking at financials—I love JP Morgan under 100. It’s way over 100 now. Is it time to get out, I don’t know, that’s your decision. These are the pieces we have, and we have to figure out when we start to have value in a stock that can produce value for you long term, intrinsically through a dividend, or it has value because it’s gonna grow, these are things you have to understand. On top of that, you bring that core conversation of where is the market going, because we have so many people who are retiring that’s changing the dynamic of how they invest every day. Every day. You bring in utilities, a real core conversation. I’ve seen utilities pull back, go back up, I’ve seen gold pull back, go back up. People are nervous. The question is, who’s pulling out when? We talked last week, people are taking some profits and just saying, hey, I’m out of here. You have other people who are hanging on and trying to figure this whole thing out. You don’t really know. I tell people, if you’re invested, stay in for the long term. You have to be an investor in solid companies.

Seth: We’re gonna take a quick break, you’re listening to Money on Tap, you can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. Seth Krussman, Brayshaw Financial Group is our company, and we bring to you Money on Tap. We have a lot of fun doing this show. One of the things we love about doing Money on Tap is that our goal for you to have access to have the financial planning world, what do we think, how do we do, what are we talking about? Raising the bar for your financial education, it’s so critical. That’s what we’re doing here. The other side of this is, we’re financial planners. If you’re looking to work with a financial planner, if you want to have that playbook for you to understand the important things right now, how you’re going to get to your goal, how to retire, that’s what we’re doing here. If you have $250k of investable assets, give us a call. It’s free to you and it is worth your time to pick up that phone and give us a call and discover what complete wealth management looks like. Ben and I are excited about the opportunity to partner with you and give you that financial plan that’s going to make the next step so much better understood and get you where you need to go. Welcome back, you’re listening to Money on Tap, you can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. We’re going to be wrapping up this show that has been all about the investing that you may want to consider, or you should be thinking about; how do you stay invested or how do you go through a bear market? We’ve seen a lot of the bull market in the recent 10 years. Since 2009, we went on the longest bull markets, where the market continued to rise until this last year, where we pulled back 33%. We went into a bear market. It was so fast in comparison to bear market’s we’ve experienced. People have forgotten we went through a bear market this year, and still most people in their investments, if they stayed invested, wherever they were at, they’ve pulled through and they’re doing okay. That’s one of the things I wanted to talk about. In a plan, if you are looking to retire in the next 10 years, or 20 years, if you’re 5 years away from your retirement, how do you stay invested? We hear time and time again that people that stay invested pull through and they do okay, where statistically, investors in the market have done around 2-4%, depends on where you’re getting your research from. Does that sound like what the market has given? You were talking about the large cap value sector of stock investing would be somewhere close to 7%?

Ben: that’s just the average, there’s been some really bad years inside of that. If you’re not a long term holder, you’re gonna get burned, because that gets oversold, people sell out of that…

Seth: I think that’s part of the conversation people need to understand, is the flight to safety areas. We’ve talked about precious metals, utilities, we didn’t really talk about bonds. That’s where people traditionally go for the flight to safety. Does that mean it’s going to continually rise and do well over time? Not a whole lot of people know we’ve experienced a round of 30-year bull market in the bond market. It is a sector and investment that will have volatility. It’ll go up and down.

Ben: That’s right on. Even with the bond market being oversold, interest rates being low, that’s still a flight to safety in a recession environment. How many people have money sitting in the bank? If we took a raise of hands, an enormous amount of people have money in the bank and they’re not making money on it. A bond paying anything will be better in a recessionary environment. People are gonna leave stocks and go to bonds. Those are all things that exist. Talking about bonds, safety, all these pieces, it leads me to another conversation I want to talk about. In 2008, I remember talking to people and saying, we had the crash and the .com crash, 2008-9 was a financial crash. People have recovered from 9/11, all those things happened. I did a lot of business during the 2000 years where people laughed me out of the room about buying an annuity to hedge a portion of their investment. I’d be like, we had the .com crash, create a foundational element. We’ve talked about having a house on this show, having foundations. I was telling someone in the office the other day, you’re all in the stock market. Have something in a foundational investment. Those are cash, CDs, different types of annuities, but you can have different types of foundation with the annuities: pension-income annuities, or some sort of fixed rate return, which may be better than the CD. You need foundational elements, and as the market rises, adding to your foundation is important. When I speak that language to a lot of people—how many times do we say I’m going to buy more bonds. That’s more foundational like, but there’s still some major component issues, but it can still affect some of the bonds. Where are the Enron bonds?

Seth: Bonds can go down and having this allusion that a bond isn’t going to have a factor of volatility, or I t can go down is very much like the precious metals or utilities. They’re where people have gone for safety, and the more recent market cycle we’ve been through is these will go up and down. The CD is a guarantee, a hedge. Some annuities can, they can have some guarantees, but the foundational elements need to be able to get you through the market cycles, the up and down of the market cycles. Somehow create or continue to provide an income for you.

Ben: You’re right on there, I think in some annuities, depending on what you’re looking at, you could be buying equity based or variables, there’s all sorts of risks to all these things. You can buy pure fixed annuities that will give you a CD like return, it could be tax deferred even. There’s different things you can do as the market rises. I always say to people, take some of your principle off it. Don’t be afraid to take profit. Profit’s good. I think people are gonna be taking profits just to cycle through the tax return or the taxes that are gonna change for us. People are gonna say as soon as April, May, June hits, I’m gonna cycle my stock. If you don’t understand this, give us a call. They’re gonna cycle their stocks, taxable assets so that they can pay the taxes today under today’s tax code and then move forward with new tax codes as they’re happening with the new administration. This is a problem for our stock market, knowing that capital gains taxes are going to be affected.

Seth: Are you setting us up for next week’s show, because that’s what I feel like, we’re gonna have to come in next week and explain what it is we’re talking about—cycling, selling your nonqualified assets, because we’re in a tax code that’s preferable to what we’re looking at for the next feature. Thank you for being with us here at Money on Tap. You can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. You can also join us next week, we’re going to be talking about taxes and how things can look for the future with the new administration. That sounds fun, hopefully it’s been a great time with us here. We enjoy and appreciate you being here with us. You can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com.

SUMMARY

Ben Brayshaw and Seth Krussman are partners of Brayshaw Financial Group. Having questions about retirement and financial planning is normal, and the Brayshaw Financial Group is here to help! Reach out to Ben and Seth at 855-226-8551, or info@yourmoneyontap.com.

Bear market or bull market? As an investor, it’s important to know and understand these terms so you can make your money work for you. Look no further than this episode of Money on Tap to learn more about the fluctuations of each marketplace. Amateur or pro, you always have something new to learn as an investor!  

Money on Tap provides an in-depth look at the best way to manage your finances as you get closer and closer to retirement. Hosted by Ben Brayshaw and Seth Krussman, this podcast is chock full of information regarding managing money, being smart with finances, and a beginner’s guide to stocks. This hour-long podcast is an easy listen and a great way to learn more about how to be smart with your finances.

MOT Show 159

Seth: Welcome to MOT. Money on Tap, your personal finance headquarters, where we bring out the professional’s experience and some fun. What we call 3-dimensional investing, utilizing insurance brokerage and fee-based planning, that's what we do on this show. We look at all sides of the issues and we bring a fully independent planning perspective to the table. Welcome to Money on Tap. You can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. We're so glad to have you aboard today. My name is Seth Krussman, and I’m here with Ben Brayshaw.

Ben: Good morning, Seth.

Seth: We’re financial planners. You can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. We are gonna have fun talking about financial planning, and things that are of interest for us and our clients, and hopefully it works out that way for you, too. The topic is essential.

Ben: I’m excited about this topic. We’re gonna talk about reverses vs. pullbacks. What’s the difference, what kind of bubble are we looking at? Is there a bubble? We’re gonna help people make their own decisions and understand the market around us, because with a country that has each state shut down, how could the market be doing so well? Should I be investing? Did I miss the boat? I don’t know.

Seth: That ship has sailed, or not. it’s good to be jumping into this topic, but before we do that, we do this thing called MITN. It’s gonna happen, right around the corner. If you haven’t picked up the phone and given us a call, it’s a great time to do so. As always, I need to get to MITN as quickly as possible, so without further ado, it’s time for MITN. What is new with our RMDs? What in the world is an RMD? It stands for required minimum distribution. If you have an IRA, we call that qualified money, and required distribution is what used to happen at age 70 ½, and you were required to take money out of your IRA. Whether you wanted to or not, that’s what the IRS said was the calculation based off where your account was on December 31^st of last year; this is what’s required for you to take. If you don’t take that distribution, it’s the heaviest fine you can get levied off your taxes, and it’s 50%. Last year, COVID hit, what we were all talking about, guess what they did? They said you don’t have to take your RMD, and they changed the age to 72 before you had to take the RMD.

Ben: Changing from 70 ½ to 72, that’s a big change. The article at MarketWatch goes into the fac that there’s a lot of bipartisan support for the idea to move the RMD to 75, and that would delay the required minimum distribution of your IRA funds off a little longer, allowing people to work longer; it opens up some more avenues. They’re trying to expand the idea that people can work longer. People are living longer, which is proven scientifically, but also recognized by the IRS with their new tax stables for 2022, which says everyone is living longer, so the spread of your retirement funds could be longer, which has reduced the RMD percentage down to 6.5% less than what it normally would be. That’s kind of interesting; it doesn’t sound like a lot, but if you don’t wanna take out your RMDs, which a lot of people don’t wanna be forced to do that. That’s not everyone’s scenario. We don’t wanna sound cavalier about that. There are times where taking out your RMD because of other scenarios that may happen: maybe you have a consulting role, you got some money that’s gonna be taxed as ordinary income through an annuity, which happens all the time, all of a sudden you don’t wanna take out that income to get taxed into a higher bracket.

Seth: a 90-year old, this is Vice.com, North Hollywood resident, Aaron Epstein, has been with ATT&T since the 1960s. he’s been with them so long that he watched the breakup with Blue Bell, he watched as the telecom giant reconstituted itself, but he still has a pacific bell email address, despite the brand being discontinued in 2002. Why would we bring this up? He was so frustrated by ATT&T’s failure to upgrade his internet from 3 MEGs, that he took out a quarter page ad in the WSJ just to tell ATT&T what he was thinking about that.

Ben: He even addressed it to the CEO, John Stansky, listen you guys, you missed a portion of Hollywood in your internet coverage. This isn’t like he’s living on a farm in the middle of nowhere WI, ID, he’s like I’m in North Hollywood and I can’t get more than 3 MBs, let’s pick up the pace here. If he’s had this many frustrations, there’s no pride in keeping them and remaining their customer; dump them. When we don’t like somebody or some company or what they’re doing, my wife and I stop doing business with them. Enough people do that, that’s a real story. Anyways, he’s got a long history with them. Who knows, that’s the first phone call he ever made, all sorts of stuff behind it. ATT&T, you gotta get your act together, cause that’s embarrassing.

Seth: He was sitting there with the old modem that was doing the ring and the scratch to try and connect, that’s hilarious. I love it.

Ben: North Hollywood, that’s special. Real special. This next article gets my goat. I might get on a tangent here, but Dallas Mavericks have stopped playing National Anthem at home games at Mark Cuban’s direction. I don’t know if this made the show, but they were talking about how Mark Cuban would run for president, but he’s saying we’re done with the National Anthem. This was something that really got my goat, because 3 years ago, he was talking about how we need to stand and he covers his heart, and now he’s saying that due to the changes in awareness, we need to do this together. He’s mitigated the situation by saying he would kneel or do whatever the organization would do as a whole and join in, which I find severely disappointing. Having family in military, respecting the military, I think our flag and what it stands for has nothing to do with the argument, the protests that people have. Those are 2 separate items and the fact that they’ve drawn them together is disgusting. If you want to kneel for our flag, you can leave. Other countries don’t provide that freedom. That’s where I stand on this. What’s interesting and absolutely crazy that people don’t know is that the NBA’s rulebook requires players to stand during the national anthem. That’s a requirement in the NBA rulebook. Not playing the national anthem is also breaking the rulebook. These people need to be kicked out of the NBA, and I’m glad I haven’t watched 1 game this year, and I’m part of the hundreds of millions of people who haven’t. if they haven’t figured this out, as any customer, I choose to do business with whom I do business with. I haven’t watched one football game this year, until the Super Bowl. I’m not gonna deprive them of that one thing, but I’m not gonna give them my business. This is the first time in a decade I haven’t done fantasy football either. You’re not alone, because there are millions of people doing this. I think Mark Cuban, this is an insult to most Americans. Maybe it’s his way of saying let’s take this whole thing out so we don’t have the debate, but now they won’t even film what the players are doing. They don’t even take a picture of the players kneeling. I don’t know, Seth; that’s my thoughts.

Seth: The Blazers are the biggest deal in Portland, and I have watched some of the games, I know it’s been a discussion at our house, what we’ve been seeing is the players protesting, making different statements…this has been one I never thought would be a conversation, that we would not respect the country we’re in, that’s given us so much opportunity, to the level that we’re clearly stepping over a line that I can’t, I don’t know what to say.

Ben: It doesn’t make sense. It’s required by the NBA itself. If one of my employees decided to step out of line of the rules of the SCC or FINRA, you’d be terminated instantly, and liable. The NBA rules don’t apply, so when you travel, the NBA rules, they don’t always apply. When are rules optional? Anyone who tries to tie these 2 things together, that’s the most asinine connection. The American flag grants freedom and the things we enjoy don’t correlate all the things they’re claiming this is. It won’t be this rebellion piece that’s going on, or this protest, it’ll be another protest they’re leaning for. There’s a platform for anything, don’t offend millions of people of all race for various reasons, over one item. You’re gonna build more awareness doing it in a way that doesn’t bring offence to something people have died for. That’s where I think the misgivings are here.

Seth: I’m gonna second all of that. Not to shift gears too much, but if you’ve been paying attention to the Celtics, which I grew up being a Celtics fan because my grandfather as a huge Larry Bird fan, so we grew up watching a lot of the Celtics and rooting for them throughout those LA battles in the 80s, but one of your Celtics that’s been lighting it up this year is Peyton Pritchard, who’s a former University of Oregon Duck, and I was so happy to see him go to the Celtics, and I love watching that guy play ball, because he brings the Larry Bird, blue collar work ethic and hustle and humility into the game. A baller, and wants to play so hard, heart and soul. I love it, and you’re welcome. We’re happy for you and I’m tuning back into watching the Celtics when I get a chance.

Ben: That’s gonna do it for MITN, and our political rants. I wanna hank everyone who’s fought, died, and come home for this country. Thank you so much for what you do.

Seth: We’re gonna be talking about bubbles. Is it a reversal, is it a bubble, what’s going on? It’s really fun and it’s gonna be a critical conversation for you to have. You’re gonna love it, you’re gonna have fun. We’ll be right back; you’re listening to MOT.

Ben: Call us today at 855-226-8551, and get your free consultation with Ben, Seth, or any of our partners. Find out what’s going on in your plan, your estate plan, financial plan, or what you’re planning at all, if nothing. Get it fixed, get it right, get it done today. Give us a call at 855-226-8551.

Seth: Welcome back, you’re listening to MOT. You can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. We're so glad to have you aboard today. My name is Seth Krussman, and I’m here with Ben Brayshaw. Today we’re gonna talk about bubbles.

Ben: We’re not talking about the beach bubbles; we’re referencing the stock market. There’s a lot of talk around if we’re in a bubble, in conversation, some of the foremost names out there in concerns of a bubble. Before we started doing this show, you brough up Jim Cramer who back in 2013 declared a bubble?

Seth: Look back anytime we’ve hit a new high in the market. This is gonna be the conversation everyone’s having on the TV, we’re having it, there’s concerns every time you hit a high because it could not stay there. Does it stay there or pullback, and what sectors pullback? What is going to be the thing that makes the market afraid? Research Jim Cramer anytime we hit a high. What does Jim say? He talks a lot.

Ben: He’s a little crazy. He does a good job with the interviews, and he asks the right questions most of the time. That’s important, and as we do—you’re so right, people are looking at their own portfolio, we’re evaluating ours on a daily basis—trends, shifts, gains, what’s moving…I hear the news, the tech sector is skyrocketing. When is the tech sector gonna burst? When are we gonna have that next pullback? I think the whole conversation around the bubble, in our stock market, it’s not gonna implode and lose all your money. You’re gonna lose a significant amount of money that you’re gonna have to wait to get it back. The concept, if you’re a long term investor, you’re thinking, I’m gonna ride these waves, and people think they’re gonna be standing up on the board. They always think there’s the end of the wave that you’re gonna settle into. Can you get out of the bubble near the top of the wave? No one wants to miss the entire wave. There’s the greed factor that’s so dangerous. This is a good conversation to have because the market is at an all-time high. Today it’s this, today it’s that, these 2 hit today. It’s a constant conversation. We’re coming out of a pandemic. Some of these numbers, some of these things, it’s hard to find justification for some of them and why they’re doing it. It’s a little crazy. It’s a weird time. We put together the 5 core stages that involve a bubble. You’re gonna see some of these or feel some of these are alive and well in today’s marketplace. The question is your feeling of a degree isn’t as high as the bubble. The bubble could be bigger than other bubbles and could last longer than other bubbles. We’ve looked through a few bubbles already, and I don’t know when the next one is coming. The first one we have here today is displacement. Displacement is innovation inside something. Our world today, it’s the batter-powered car. It’s the innovation today.

Seth: Look across the board. Tesla, Neo, is another one. It’s been 1500% return on Neo over the last 6 months. If you look at the underlying fundamentals which should support why people put their money into a stock. This is going old school, this is Buffet, this is why you buy things that are of a value stock, something that’s been discounted unfairly in terms of price you can buy it at. Underneath that is an asset that’s doing well. Neo is not, it’s been propped up by the Chinese govt, 1500% return on it, it doesn’t make sense. It’s an industry, let’s take a look at Tesla. Fifth largest in the S&P 500 is where they’re at right now.

Ben: Elon’s the wealthiest guy in the world right now.

Seth: By market capitalization, which means how much money they have in the market surrounding it, it should be the biggest car manufacturer that we’ve ever seen in the history of the automotive industry. But no.

Ben: There’s a whole story of innovation behind it, which is the conversation of, the battery creation they have. I’ve listened to analyst after analyst say, I heard Tesla’s stock was $1200, hard to believe? I don’t know. I have no idea what Tesla—they’re predicting what the stocks go to based on various analysis. His number 1 thing he kept saying was, we’re not giving, it’s not a car company. Everyone’s like, what do you mean it’s not a car company. They look at this as vehicle and battery innovation. Power innovation is what Tesla’s wrapped up into.

Seth: The car happens to be what they’re creating for the marketplace. Behind it, it’s this whole innovation that’s taking place.

Ben: Exactly. Complete conversation of future development, they keep wrapping little pieces of this car. He wants to have people living in space. Sounds interesting for a while—

Seth: You said he’s the richest man on earth? This has been a couple of months now that this has been posted. Congrats, that’s cool, but why?

Ben: Because the stock is worth so much. This is one of those things that displacement’s really hard to understand. Displacement and innovation could just be driving the car in a different direction. It could take our market to a different world. I think that’s happening, because people are talking about lithium, talking about all sorts of different components that are exploding other places. Now people are making money in other parts of the market they didn’t make money in before. That innovation has continued to develop that. I find it interesting because some of the old assets drive, we were talking about oil and gas, it helps manufacture everything in our country, from plastic to steel. You can build all the electric cars you want, it’s still gonna spend a ton on oil and gas.

Seth: I love the Tesla story; it’s a great example for us for possible bubble. I would lean more towards Neo, because you have govt aid happening there with an automobile that hasn’t brought a whole lot to the market. As we’re talking about this, it reminds me of a portfolio manager that I used to work for years ago. One of the things I brought to him was Amazon at $112. He pulls me aside and says, son, let me explain something to you. This is what we call a Wall street darling. The rest of it sounded like Charlie Brown’s teacher, because I went, you don’t get it and you’re not willing to take a look or think about what it could be. They’re not profitable. They weren’t. they hadn’t turned a dollar of profit at that point, but I look at Amazon now and I’m like, love Jeff Bezos or don’t. I’m looking at it from a profit perspective: what you could’ve done or owned for your clients, but you were stuck in a way of thinking. It worked for the 1980s, 1990s, and I gotta tell you, this is not that market. I think that’s one of the things we’re eventually gonna come back to you. We talked about displacement. Did we clear the table, Ben?

Ben: We’ve got innovation. I think people understand innovation, how it can re-steer the marketplace, Tesla’s the obvious example, and how everything else can be apart of that. It’s dragging companies. It’s got all thee ropes to other companies, lithium, plastic, everything—you talked about Neo, but there’s all these different car companies, Nicola, and all these others out there.  

Seth: That’s your bubble right there. That one got drug into the mainstream and should never had hit wall street.

Ben: Then you’ve got the boom, right? This is where everyone hears, and it gains momentum. Everyone says, 5 years ago, 3 years ago, 2 years ago, hey, Tesla’s interesting, I’ll buy a few shares. I remember I was auditing trades on Tesla, and the guy was saying, Tesla’s up and down; it’s so volatile. It was very speculative at that time, but it was gaining momentum. I think the thing about momentum is that this is the time that you really wanna be in the stock. You don’t wanna sit around and wait for momentum to rise up, there’s other things that have better investment opportunities. 10 years ago, I didn’t own Tesla, today I own Tesla. There’s momentum, and I’m part of it. I’m not sure whether the Tesla momentum is in or out, but I’ve traded it, sold it, bought it. Do I think electric cars are here to stay? Yeah, some version, and Tesla’s gonna be the leader for a while. Being part of this boom phase is really important because this is the wave. Seth’s a surfer. I’d love to say I can surf, but it’s an embarrassing experience. I did officially get up once, but not quite my thing. Anyways, riding that wave in the momentum phase is great. Then we get where, Seth?

Seth: I wanna talk a little bit about momentum. I’m looking for opportunities, I’m looking for momentum. There are some things I wanna see before I put money into it for my clients or myself. Momentum is one of those. I wanna see profitability, that’s a key thing for me. Almost more so today, I wanna see that the market has started to come into this idea and put money towards it. When you see big money do things, you pay attention. Usually, that’s apart of what we see as momentum. The chart is going higher. It might be volatile, it might be up and down, but overall, you see a lot of money come into this. Getting things early is what it’s all about. Catching that momentum as quickly as you possibly can and being able to understand what your parameters are around trading that, if it goes down 20%, you probably have some rule that says we’re not gonna take 20% down. This is a threshold that you need to already have in mind, is trade rules apply to understand that that is going to take place, ups and downs are gonna take place, but what you wanna see is that momentum. We’re talking about bubbles, because how long does a good thing last? Euphoria is the next thing we notice about these trades. This is the phase that everybody says I don’t care if it’s profitable, I don’t know what it is, I’m gonna put money on this, make some money, and who cares, I’m gonna be great, and the next thing you know, everybody’s in. it doesn’t matter where prices go, there’s gonna be a market of buyers who always want more. That’s what you call a greed bubble, it’s part of this process. Here’s an example: Japanese real estate in 1999. Everyone knows what happened, but if you don’t, we’re gonna talk about it. If you don’t, you can have that conversation with whoever’s at your water cooler. Land in Tokyo sold for $139 per square foot. Figure out whatever you’re living in right now and go ahead and multiply that by $139k to figure out what that really means. This was 350x the value of Manhattan property. Similarly, at the height of the internet bubble, which was March of 2000. The combined value of technology stocks in the NASDAQ was higher than the GDP of most countries. Does that mean that everything is gonna fall out of the sky? It may not, but it’s what we’re trying to show you is that people had lost their mind, so to speak. That’s euphoria.

Ben: That’s really well said. The thing about Euphoria, is that it’s a drug. It’s the thing that makes you keep going. It’s the, I’m up, I’m up. It’s not investing. This is where I would say the emotions get the better of investors. This is where you’re not analyzing assets, you’re not doing anything, it’s not going over that. You have to look at these different pieces. As we go through the euphoria stage, there’s subsets of evaluation that I would intrinsically take perspective of. I’d look at whether or not there’s 2 things going on: the first is I would look to see if the assets you own are historically expensive. Historically I would say, how does this look over 1 year, 5 years? In today’s world, that’s really easy to do, because we had a pandemic. If we’re in recovery, the simple answer is, are we close to its 1 year equivalent, 13 month equivalent. We’re getting to that point where it’s past 1 year. If the company hasn’t recovered, holder beware. The 2^nd thing I’d look at is are the companies continuing to buyback their own stock? If you’re not seeing share buybacks, the company is saying we thin our stock is overpriced, it’s not cheap anymore.

Seth: Good stuff. This plate in front of me that we’re working our way through and digesting is incredible. I cannot wait to jump back in here with we’re gonna talk about the phases of the bubble, but we’re gonna get into what are people saying? What do we think? We’re gonna try to apply some logic to what we’re doing today. You’re listening to MOT; you can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. that information could be the difference between you and a successful return. That’s what we talk about here, 3D investing, that’s what we’re doing on MOT. We’re gonna take a quick break, don’t go anywhere. We have a lot of fun doing MOT, and Ben and I have been financial planners for years, and our goal is to bring you into the room, have the conversations we have; we think these are critical conversations for you, but we understand this is a limited space. What we’d love to do is open the doors to you at BFG so you can experience what it means to have 3D planning in your life. Let’s take a look at all sides of your situation, your scenario and see how we can put together the best plan possible, taking into account your risk, how much can you have in the market, how much do we need to have set aside and doing different things for your life? That’s what we do as planners, how we engage with you. you can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. If you have 250k in investable assets today, our planning is free to you. We want you to have the playbook to have a successful experience in retirement. Give us a call; 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. Ben and I welcome you to BFG for complete wealth management. Now back to MOT with Ben and Seth. Aren’t you glad you’re listening to MOT, because we’re talking about bubbles. you can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. Bubbles.

Ben: We talked about 3 different things. The concept of the stock bubble, the idea of innovation, the concept of momentum and the boom phase, we talked about the emotional euphoric experience of the top of this wave and looking out over the horizon and you’re above the water. Either you’re gonna crash and burn at the end of the bubble, or you’re gonna take some profits. That’s one of the things people don’t take a concept on. I think this year is gonna be an interesting profit taking year for a lot of reasons. I think somewhere around May, April, maybe June, there’s gonna be a lot of interesting shifts in the market. I think we have 3-6 months before we see anything, I think. I’m not predicting anything here before we see something tragic. The reason I say that is because a lot of people did reallocations in April and May. Even in June and July, people were taking shifts trying to mitigate shifts, lower volatility, address the time horizon they thought things were gonna fall under, did it meet all the investment requirements? People are moving all over the place for all the compliance reasons that exist out there. We do those naturally. People don’t wanna take profits usually before that one year end. 12 months later, long-term gain on most of these nonqualified assets. If it’s an IRA, Roth IRA, people are selling all the time and not worrying about it. People in the non-qualified stats, you open your own brokerage account, you wanna hold it for a year so that you’re paying the long term capital gains tax, which is lower for most people. I think that’s a big deal. Honestly, that sends us on the trajectory of this summer being an interesting pullback period. Someone would say to me in rebuttal, why wouldn’t they just hold it for another year? Why would they sell it when a year’s up? I’d tell you that they could—they could hold it for years. They may hold it till the end of this year; I could be wrong in that the summer could have some shift in the doldrums. We might have some new tax codes coming. We’re gonna have new capital gains rates that are gonna be higher, much higher. I think people are gonna wanna cycle some of their tax dollars in the short and long term cap gains. They’re not gonna care, they’re gonna wanna cycle it through. Why? Because I want to. I’m gonna cycle all of my assets this year. I don’t wanna have to subject those assets to a new tax code next year that has a different capital gains rate that I’m gonna be subjected to. My cap gains rate’s not going down. That I’m pretty sure of.

Seth: Taking profit is what we’re talking about. Ben, you brought in several different reasons that, for personal reasons, you’re gonna be taking profits. Currently, it’s the tax rate you can take the profits at, right now. In other areas, or other pieces that are important for people to grab hold of here, is where we’ve seen a lot of gains in certain stocks or sectors, or the whole market that people are saying. These are seasoned veterans of the industry that are managing a significant amount of money that are saying we’re gonna go ahead and take a breath. That’s what happens a lot of the time when the market hits these new highs, and what are people doing? They’re taking profits. Some of that happens as innocently as a portfolio rebalance. That’s one of the things we wanna make sure you’re doing is taking a look at your 401K. whatever your small cap holding is tremendously this last year, is it the percentage your originally intended that to be, and your rebalance? That’s shown us it’s an ineffective way to have a better solution down the road. How many people we talk to that don’t like portfolio rebounds, or however you hold those, yeah, you can. At least a minimum yearly basis, you wanna take a look at that; just try. Do the best you can to rebalance the portfolio. Some of these will happen from time to time. It’s not necessarily gonna be the investor saying I’m up 1000% in whatever stock and I need to dump it. That’s what this is talking about; people looking at the market from a perspective that it’s done and accomplished what it’s set out to do. It’s given them a 10, 15, 20% return. Let’s take the profit, we’re gonna go into something else, just even hold it into cash for a period of time, that’s what we’re talking about here. What about panic? That’s the final place that people get to, is after investors have been taking profit, there is panic. What I wanna say about this is, this is one of the easiest things for us to come to and say, clearly we have a bubble, and panic was this last year February, March, that’s panic in the markets, folks. The market doesn’t understand what in the world is happening. It doesn’t know how to react. The market does when it doesn’t understand something, is we’re out. Let’s get this money out and protect it. We’ve gone through that this last year. The question we need to look at right now is, are we in some similar circumstances right here, we could see some taking profits. I don’t know that anybody right now would – maybe people would’ve panicked about the presidential elections, that might’ve been something people panicked about and took a bunch of money out of the market. It looks to me as if people are closer to a boom euphoria phase than taking profit or panic. It looks to me like more of a front end. I know it’s not something I’m gonna try to quantify here. I’m trying to take a look at what’s going on right now, what money is flowing, what would I do with that?

Ben: One of the things—you’re making great points about panic and concern, what’s going on. I was looking at core numbers, but I was looking at the 50 day moving average. I was just thinking, when I think about the stock market, I think about the technology base being so vibrant and having done so well this year. I’m thinking about all the different opportunities there. I was looking at the QQQ, which is a great tracker. Over the last 52 weeks, it’s up over 100%. That’s really great. That’s a great return. Then I start realizing that’s on the generic things I’m looking at down on the list. I’m looking at the semi-conductor space, up 157% for the last 52 weeks. I’m looking at the Russel 2000, that’s up 136%, and it’s up over 40% in the last 100 days. It’s at an all-time high. These are real things that are all outperforming the NASDAQ. I’ve gotta tell ya, this is a big deal. You have things at all-time highs, that’s one of our things. Is it something where the euphoria is too big? Then you start looking at things like the energy sector. I’m thinking about, what does that look like compared to the NASDAQ. The energy sector is up 94% over the last 52 weeks. The NASDAQ’s up 100%. All-time highs. Energy? Not all-time highs. I’m starting to look at different areas. We look at consumer discretionary. Where’s that compared to all-time highs? These are real conversations you need to have over the portfolio. One year has done great. Consumer discretionary? All-time highs. These are things that you wanna get help evaluating, looking at. If you want us to help you look at it, we’re happy to. Sit down with a professional so you don’t get stuck in euphoria, panic, or the loss.

Seth: You’re listening to MOT; you can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. this has been one of those shows that we’ve loved. We’ve done a ton of work in this area, and we’re very excited for you to be able to grab a hold of what it is we’re talking about, and how we’re using this today to make progress. At the end of the day, it’s about what you can keep. Have you done what you’ve done in order to have a successful experience in retirement? We hope so. Part of that process is understanding how to protect yourself and at what levels you are comfortable taking risks or taking profit. That’s kind of where we were at, we’re talking about taking profit. As the 5 stages of a bubble move their way through, we want you to be on the profit taking side. We don’t want you to be on this fear side of the equation, that you’re taking a ton of losses that everyone else has decided to flee the market. If we can help you out, we’d love to. You can reach us at 855-226-8551. We’re gonna see what we can do in terms of your portfolio, and how do you retire successfully?

Ben: It’s interesting with taking profits, people get scared, they think it’s an all or nothing story. My son loves to trade, he’s enjoying it, I give a lot of supervision. It’s been an awesome experience to engage my son because we talk for a long time about something I love doing, and he’s really interested in it. What I talk to him about all the time is how I trade and how I take profits all the time. He’ll go that stock is still moving, it’s still going up. I’m never gonna be at the top or buy at the perfect bottom, if that happens it’ll be luck. It’s top volume that hits massive tops or bottoms, big buys, or big sells. Those things are what create those peaks and valleys. Not Ben Brayshaw. You won’t either. As a listener, you need to realize that knocking off profits works from time to time, even if you love the stock. I sold a quarter of my stock and my son’s like that’s a really good performing stock, why would you sell it? I made a lot of money on it, and I wanna trim. What you consider a lot is how you do it. I have friends that say if I make 20% in 30 days, I sell all of it. Never turn around because you made a profit. Never look back and say I could’ve made more. You have to have the core perspective.

Ben: If you have a portfolio and you’re in the marketplace, you’re gonna have gains, winners, and losers. If you have something that’s taking a dive, are you gonna keep holding it in the expectation that somewhere down the road it’s gonna be the story of a lifetime and be a 1000% return? Probably not, get off of it and move your position to something you can see the things you really wanna hold and own. That can also be an asset to you because gains and losses. You’ve been listening to MOT. You can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. We’re also on Facebook at /3Dinvesting and Twitter at BFG_LLC. We can’t wait to make it a great day and a great life with you here on MOT.

SUMMARY

Ben Brayshaw and Seth Krussman are partners of Brayshaw Financial Group. Having questions about retirement and financial planning is normal, and the Brayshaw Financial Group is here to help! Reach out to Ben and Seth at 855-226-8551, or info@yourmoneyontap.com.

Any investor, amateur or pro, knows the highs and lows of the stock market. On today’s episode of Money on Tap, Ben and Seth talk about ‘stock market bubbles,’ what they are, how to define them, and how to overcome them. This is a must-listen for anyone looking to invest or anyone who already has their foot in the door when it comes to investing.

Money on Tap provides an in-depth look at the best way to manage your finances as you get closer and closer to retirement. Hosted by Ben Brayshaw and Seth Krussman, this podcast is chock full of information regarding managing money, being smart with finances, and a beginner’s guide to stocks. This hour-long podcast is an easy listen and a great way to learn more about how to be smart with your finances.

MOT Show 158 15 Steps to Help You Prepare for a Better Retirement

Seth: Welcome to MOT. Money on Tap, your personal finance headquarters, where we bring out the professional’s experience and some fun. What we call 3-dimensional investing, utilizing insurance brokerage and fee-based planning, that's what we do on this show. We look at all sides of the issues and we bring a fully independent planning perspective to the table. Welcome to Money on Tap. We're so glad to have you aboard today. My name is Seth Krussman.

Ben: I’m Ben Brayshaw.

Seth: You can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. This is gonna be a great show for us today.

B3n: We’re gonna be a little energized. We just had 2 hours of technical difficulties behind the anxiety that’s gonna come out of this show. I sent that out to the compliance world listening to this show. Have fun.

Seth: We get a lot of questions about this and that, right? You guys send us questions about different topics and things we’ve covered, and we took a step back and got a 30k foot view on what it is we’re doing here. We’re getting you prepared and educated to have a successful retirement. We talk a lot about that in our practice and with our clients. Is retirement a successful experience? You only get one shot to do it right the first time. We’re gonna cover 15 steps, the things we talk about on an ongoing basis. This is the show to check the box, create the list…we’ve got 15 in a row that we’re gonna make it through.

Ben: This is 15 steps to prepare for retirement. This isn’t about the person who’s retired. This is about the person who’s stepping into this, what do I do, what am I not doing? We could’ve come up with 50 steps, but we narrowed it down to 50. We’re geared to go.

Seth: Before we step into that, we’re gonna go ahead and kick it off with MITN. Robinhood raises another $2.4 billion from shareholders. If you haven’t watched the news in the last couple of weeks, we’re uncovering some of these crazy trades going on. Reddit, subscribers to different feeds were charging the market with a few different stocks, GameStop being one of them. It created a whole other scenario in the market that we’ve never seen from a brokerage house perspective.

Ben: I think it’s tremendously interesting that Robinhood is the name of the company that I think has robbed millions upon million of average investors all day long. There’s a number of advisors out there that would disagree, but I’ve gotta be honest with you. I think it’s amazing that they’ve tempered it to, you can only buy 10 shares of the movie company, and you can only buy x number of shares…it was down to 10 shares of AMC. That thing was trading between $8-15, so you could invest $80-115 in this company. Here you have all these hedge fund guys that are shorting this stock. Then you have TD, Ameritrade, doing the same thing, all the limitations across the board. All they’re doing is playing into the hands of those shorting the companies by limiting the amount of buys. If you have more buys, the price goes up, if you have less buys, the price goes down. So if you limit the number of buys, you’re limiting the growth on these assets. I think it’s amazing that this is sellout to the hedge fund companies. These Gen Z’s, we all deserve this. We sent all of Gen Z home in college and high school and said you have to stay home. They figured out how to overthrow the hedge funds. My hat’s off to the Gen Z’s. I’ve been joking around with my son about this. We help him trade his stocks, and we’ve had some great laughs, he’s learned a ton of stuff. He’s watching all these social media pieces, and I’ve gotta tell you. This is such a double standard in so many ways. I’m looking at—there’s these hedge fund companies, and they’ve put hundreds of thousands of companies out of business by shorting their stock. Putting millions of people out of business, job losses across the board. There’s probably like 6 guys smoking a cigar, drinking scotch, and they decide, we’re gonna short one company, push the stock down, and make a ton of money – I heard this illustration on CNN. These people lose everything, and the guys drive away in their Lamborghini. Now Gen Z decides to do this in the open public, in front of everyone, the open public is having an open forum. They’re just saying, if we go and buy this stock, like AMC, we saved 14,000 popcorn jobs. AMC could get loans and sell stock, there was so much benefit for AMC, I’m shocked they’re not launching a massive lawsuit. If you’re not AMC, get better legal advice, because they’re forcing your stock down by limiting the number of buys. This is complete treachery. This is wrong. They’re talking about leverage and margin, that’s fine, make everyone buy it in cash, but make the hedge funds do it too. You’re worried about a 60% margin ratio, but the hedge funds even need 10% down. What makes it right for them, but you can’t. it has to be an even, fair playing field. You’ve got Robinhood, who’s named after the guy giving everything away, and they’re taking everything away. I’m listening to all these people; they’re after Robinhood. To double down on this, they raised $2.4 billion from the shareholders, but guess what? They postponed their IPO going public, because they know that there are all these guys that are gonna bury this company with short sells. I think it’s funny, and I’m not sure about the financial, how much backing they need to have for different assets. When they went out last Thursday and got the 3.4 billion they need for backing this, if that’s what they needed, they should’ve released all those limits. If they got the backing, they should be fine. If anything, they started restricting further. Now they’ve got another 2.4 million—we’re talking 6 million that you didn’t have, and you still can’t back more than 10 shares of AMC, 5 shares of GS, or any number of these things. It’s wrong.

Seth: It’s interesting that this is the preferred clearinghouse for Gen Z that is really been driving a lot of the numbers between GS and the shorts on the hedge funds. It’s the one that shut it down. I wonder what that’s gonna do for their business, are they gonna move over to one of the clearinghouses, is it a lawsuit? Where does this wind up?

Ben: They had the most accounts open on Friday in any on day, but I’m thinking all the Gen Z’s who probably opened up 80 accounts to buy 80 shares, you know? I think that’s a – what you’re gonna find is a ton of fraudulent accounts. Everyone’s using RH because they don’t charge you fees to trade. They make their money by the large volume of trades, between the buy and sell. There’s a difference between the numbers. If you’re selling for $10 and I’m buying for $10, there’s people in between. You might sell for $9.9 and I buy it for $10.1.

Seth: The reason was a liquidity issue, they had to make up for losses that their clearinghouse had. That’s where they needed the additional liquidity. The fact that they didn’t come back into unrestricted trade? This has just never happened before. We’ve never seen the clearinghouse restricting access and trading.

Ben: Why would you wanna slow your trading down when you get money on each trade? They should’ve just shut down margin and said cash only trades here on out, whatever they needed to do to protect the financials, and slowly open up margin again. Forget the craziness of limiting; it’s wrong, it’s silly, it’s the sold out to the big boys. I was reading another article and was listening to something about how all these other firms put automatic stop losses on hedge funds, so they were selling it to each other and walking the price of the stock down until they hit the stock bottom to stall sales. They figured out another way to take advantage of – these companies are protecting us. There’s all these stories about people making a bunch of money who aren’t hedge funds. Free and fair market, that’s what it needs to be. The fact that they’re doing it in the open is tough. Hedge funds, you’re in a new normal and you need to learn how to do it that way. SEC, there’s gonna be a zillion complaints. All the businesses are gonna get sued, and they’re gonna defend it. All they’ve done is protect themselves. We’ve got another good soapbox that will really get some people moving.

Seth: Did you hit record? I wanna double check.

Ben: Up next, who wants to talk COVID? COVID vaccines. STAT news—

Seth: It’s interesting we don’t call it the Wuhan virus. China didn’t appreciate people calling it the Wuhan virus.

Ben: Did you hear they destroyed a ton of material and they hired someone to prove it wasn’t from Wuhan? Anyways, from STAT news, we have comparing the COVID-19 vaccines. J&J’s vaccine haven’t been approved yet. A lot of people don’t understand this, but the article does a good job of explaining differences here. You need to listen to this here today. Modena and Pfizer have come out with an MRNA shot. It’s not a vaccine. There’s no vaccine to it. It never will be, it is a gene therapy,

Seth: It’s experimental.

Ben: You need to talk into these things knowing that. If you disagree, tough luck, cause that’s the facts. They don’t know, they’ve never altered MRNA in humans, intentionally. Usually when MRNA gets altered, it’s from a response to a traditional vaccine, which your body creates an autoimmune response and starts attacking something in your body. I receive vaccines, and I got transverse myelitis in college. I was paralyzed from the neck down for 2 weeks of my life. This is something that’s very near and dear to me because I will never stick another needle in my arm. When you can’t move, can’t feel your hands and feet, you’ll live shorter and not take that risk again. When reading the articles, these MRNA vaccine shots, as much as they’re saying that they’re all good and fine, there are a number of immune responses, transverse myelitis being one of them, I think you told me that, Seth. That’s a scary thing because having had it, it’s not a joke. I’m very fortunate and I thank God every day I have those movements back. I thank the good Lord that he healed me. What’s interesting about this is that even though I wouldn’t take any of these, I would say the Pfizer vaccine is one that—I meant Johnson and Johnson. That’s interesting. That’s exposing yourself to the virus, giving it there, trying to work through building the antibodies and all those things. That’s something that I’m more open to, from that perspective. If I were looking at these things, I’m gonna take the experiment off the table and I’m gonna look at who has the largest number of testing out there, even though it’s not approved. That would be the best of the 3 worst.

Seth: It’s something we know vs. something we have 0 experience releasing into a population. These are experimental. We don’t have human, long-term study trials, they didn’t roll this out and try them on animals, which is traditionally what they’ve done. The challenges with this vaccination or biological experiment, at this point, is they have tried to create a vaccine or MRNA, or therapy. They’ve tried it with this virus, which is 78% identical to SARS-2 virus. When they released the animals back into the wild to get an exposure, or re-exposure to that virus, they died.

Ben: There’s a lot of people that aren’t giving credence—I’ve seen the suppressed videos that FB has taken down. Hank Aaron had the shot 18 days before he died, Larry King had it 2 days before he died. A doctor had a platelet issue and his wife said it was from his second shot. There’s a lot of stuff out there that I’m not sure, so I can’t speak to that. What I would say is that it’s a 99.9% survival rate. That’s better than the flu, that’s better than almost anything out there. The more and more people that get it, the lower that death toll goes. We could be at 99.5% soon, with the number of people contracting this. That’s not disputing numbers, the number of people who died were tabulated this way. There’s all sorts of conversations around this that tragically died around this time period, some weren’t COVID. Let’s say some were COVID, there’s still a 99% survival rate. I’m not too psyched about slapping an experimental shot in my arm. Some are okay with that, so thank you for stepping into the void, I guess.

Seth: You have a motive here, absolutely. We appreciate it. There’s gonna be a lot that’s gonna be learned down the road. The effect on the placenta. When people contract COVID, there’s a chance of losing the pregnancy. With the MRNA it’s going to take on an ongoing presence of COVID. I saw the FDA said hydroxychloroquine. It’s okay now, after 60 years. Everyone’s okay to take it again; it’s amazing. Apparently it’s effective in treating the early onset of COVID.

Ben: I heard a lot of things help; Vitamin D is an essential item in your health. A doctor friend of mine said the second you walk into the hospital they’re overdosing you on vitamin D. that’s interesting and I think if you have thoughts and questions, which I’m sure every listener does, feel free to reach out to us at info@yourmoneyontap.com. You’re welcome to look up this article on stat.com. Last but not least, Jeff Bezos is going to step down as the Amazon CEO, and Andy Jazzy is going to take over in Q3 this year.

Seth: Unbelievable what Jeff has created and built in Amazon. What started in 1991, selling books online, turned into the retailer we know today, that’s what most people identify as Amazon. They buy the thing; it shows up the next day. The aid of the US that they host so much, the cloud-based servers that they host, so many people, or don’t host anymore, on some people’s…

Ben: I’m on round 3 here. We have totally stopped buying off of Amazon. 100%. I don’t know if that’s forever, but we went from massive Amazon users to almost 100 overnight.

Seth: What did you substitute?

Ben: We’d research those buyers on Amazon and buy from them directly.

Seth: Good job. You didn’t just make a total switch over to Walmart?

Ben: We’re going directly to the retailers, then they don’t have to pay a fee to amazon.

Seth: You’re listening to MOT, Ben Brayshaw, and his soapbox this morning. You can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. We’ve got 15 things that you want to start—what do you need to do to prepare for retirement?

Ben: If you’re listening today, and you’re wondering about the pieces we usually talk about, don’t forget that BFG offers auto, home and life insurance. We offer all of that for you. Call us at 855-226-8551 or email us at info@yourmoneyontap.com.

Seth: Now back to MIT with Ben and Seth. Welcome back, you’re listening to MOT. I’m here with Ben Brayshaw, and we’re both planners at BFG. We’re going to be talking with you about how to prepare for retirement. We have a list of 15 things we think are critical for you to write down and put priority around. Without taking up too much time, we’re gonna jump in. #1, what do you have?

Ben: For #1 we have: put down your fear. We have to start somewhere, and the 1 thing we were chatting about is that most people don’t ever engage retirement because they have a baseline fear. I don’t know what to do, how to get started, they don’t wanna engage the fear, so they put it aside. Unfortunately, it’s a paralyzing thing in this world.

Seth: If you’ve made it this far into our show, you’re doing good. So many people will say, oh no, it’s a financial show, so it’s too scary for me to tackle these topics. Folks, this is it. You’ve gotta put that down and forge ahead. God didn’t give you a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind. #2: rip the band aid off and get going.

Ben: This is simple. Our call to action is just 50-25 a month. Start doing something into anything, for retirement. I don’t care what it is, but it’s just, get going.

Seth: Absolutely. Activity and action is one of the greatest things that you can do to actually put down the financial fear. If you sit there, contemplating that fear, what do I do to get out of that fear, doing something is gonna get you out of it as quickly as anything else. That’s where we go. #3: If you have debt, grab one of those and start to pay it off.

Ben: it’s one of those things. I know we’re probably not mainstream, financial 101 guys, Dave Ramsey, pay off all your debt, whatever. I think you should get going on some sort of retirement piece. There’s something about how much time behind your investment is where gains come from. Doing some debt, focusing on 1 piece of debt is a helpful item to look at. A lot of people would say pay off your debt and we’ll deal with the rest. I’d say do $25 a quarter for a retirement plan. Just so you get used to it.

Seth: I think we talked about this the other day, which was people that have 200k of school debt, college debt or whatever that number is, it’s quite large, more proportionally now than it has been. Saying you have to pay that off before savings for retirement, it’s just not the way 2020 or 2021 works anymore. You’re gonna have to recognize, that’s gonna be there for a while until you get to a place where your earning can start to pay that down significantly. Paying that down and allowing for those returns to happen, and compound interest to work in your benefit is really critical here. #4: Contribute to the 401k plan. If you don’t have a 401k plan at your employer, start your IRA. These are qualified retirement accounts that are gonna reduce your taxability or your income, something that’s deductible at the end of the year. It’s going to allow for compounding to happen without it being taxed. It’s gonna start to put things out of sight, out of mind for you. We want a long term goal that we’re not dipping into or going over here to buy the car.

Ben: #5: your employers match. If they have a match in the 401k, you need to be contributing. Figure out how to cut, do that, it’s free money, you need to do this. I don’t care what it is, get the entire match; it’s absolutely imperative you get the match. Cut Netflix, Hulu, Amazon prime, whatever it takes to get the match, you do.

Seth: Make a cut on the coffee budget, we all have that stuff we like to do and buy, but if we can cut back, we can go this direction with it. There’s an order of operations with us. The first thing is what’s free money for us out there, and that’s gonna be the 401k sponsored plan. The next thing we take a look at is the future, and you might have inside of that 401k, a Roth option for you to contribute to. If you don’t, there’s possibly a Roth IRA that you can open up. We’re gonna take a look and see what those look like for you. #7: Challenge yourself. As if this isn’t part of what we’ve been doing all along. Challenge yourself to increase your contribution towards your 401k, IRA, Roth IRA, we’re gonna challenge you to start to increase that contribution. If you do have a 401k, and this might be an employee sponsored plan, like a simple or something like that. There might be an option that’s called an auto-escalate. That’s something you can select. It’s present at 1% a year for you to increase the contribution. You can always go and change the contribution levels for yourself. What we find is if we have built into our contribution something like this, we don’t notice it and it happens automatically. We live life, and you can set yourself up for greater success, rather than trying to go make those decisions every month or year. #8: set goals and dreams. Things you are going to be looking for in retirement. Let’s talk about 3 things you want, get it on paper, put it on that dream board next to your desk at home so it’s right in front of you. You can have that perspective of what is it you’re looking forward to in retirement. What are some goals you have in retirement?

Ben: This is what it’s all about, this is the fun part. I usually tell people go out and have dinner and focus on what it is you guys want. In a situation where you might have some general conversations, my wife and I will chat about stuff. We’re probably more aware because of the industry I’m in. it’s amazing when people go out and talk about what retirement looks like for them. Give each person 15-20 minutes to talk about retirement. It’s amazing to me how much you will enjoy getting to hear your spouse communicate that, figuring out what you have in common. One person’s thinking about traveling in Europe, the other is thinking about a trailer in Florida with my boat. I’m gonna fish all day every day, and the wife’s like I’m gonna be in Europe, I’m gonna be in Paris, drink coffee under the Eiffel tower. Eventually they bring that together; what does that look like. This is what we build all the steps for, between start and finish, to get there. That’s the success we’re trying to find. You can build a retirement, any retirement I want for somebody, but if it’s not what they want, it’s completely useless. This is a massive project to do. I’d take notes about your spouse, enjoy this moment, and appreciate why they have those dreams.

Seth: #9: Consider working longer. Even just an extra 5 years is what we talk about first; let’s take a look and see what that could look like for you. How would that change your retirement, as far as your income, some of the opportunities, goals, and dreams that you put out there? Give us a little extra cushion. Just think about it.

Ben: This is one of those things, a lot of people take a consulting role. That’s been a good out for some people; they don’t have a long-term commitment, but the company needs them. #10: consider an abbreviated job in retirement. Consider that step. The side-hustle. I have friends who are in retirement and one works for the golf course because he loves golfing. Saves on the membership fees, does a little in the morning, 3 days a week, he can golf whenever he wants.

Seth: I had a buddy who retired, and he was a bailiff for 4 years. He had a beverage company that he sold, and he went to work at the county as a bailiff, said it was fascinating.

Ben: It’s definitely an option to do. I think when we talk about doing some sort of work after retirement, a lot of people turn their head and say I’m gonna be done. There’s not a lot of people that feel that way once they’re done. They’re usually like I have all this time. I was talking to 1 gentleman who got a buyout, he was like I don’t need to go back to work. 2 months later he was like I wanna go back to work, and my wife wants me back at work. We all think this is great, and he had all these plans, and he said I really wanna be back at work. He was already applying for jobs within 45 days of being out, when he thought he was going to be taking 6 months to a year off. It wasn’t that fun. He said I was home more days than I wanted to be. The people I’m friends with, they’re working, so I can’t do as much with them. It’s complicated. We referenced this article a few shows ago; I can’t recall where it was from, but it was under or over ½ of Americans have less than 100k ready for retirement.

Seth: You could say that either way, right? 50% of Americans have under and 50% have over.

Ben: 100k is not nearly enough to retire. That’s a problem. This group of people who are all set, and there’s a group of people on track, and there’s a large group of people who aren’t prepared at all. That’s one of the reasons why we cave into this and say, how do we engage the people on those things that you need to be doing or having a conversation about in order to make the whole piece come together. If you have under 100k and you’re not saving, it’s a random pension that liquidated, those are all starts, but we need to keep it moving forward. If you feel like you’re behind the 8 ball, there’s no time better than to start now.

Seth: #10: consider creating a social security account. Does that mean you have to figure out how much to pay in addition to social security? I don’t know, but what you need to do is create your account and take a look to see what are your benefits, what are you scheduled to be able to claim at the age of 62, 63, 64, 70—start to build a plan around that. If you need help, we have on staff here, Ken, who retired from SSA and is a tremendous asset to understanding what are the ins and outs of social security? That’s the first step, create the account, take a look, see what you got.

Ben: He’s got all the info you could ever want. Give us a call, if you’ve got specific questions and we can’t answer them, he’s the #1 on that.

Seth: We just got rolling there. It’s time for us to take a quick break. We’ll be right back; you’re listening to MOT. One of the things we love about MOT is our goal for you to have access to the financial planning world. Raising the bar of your financial education, it’s so critical. If you’re looking to work with a financial planner, if you want the playbook to understand important things right now and how you’re going to get to your goals to retire successfully, that’s what we’re doing. If you have 250k of valuable assets, give us a call, it’s free to you. It is worth your time to pick up that phone and give us a call, discover what complete wealth management looks like. Ben and I are excited about the opportunity to partner with you and give you that financial plan that’s going to make the next step so much better understood to get you where you need to go. Welcome back, you’re listening to MOT, you can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. if you’re joining us late, welcome, we’re glad you’re here. Ben and I are financial planners at BFG, and we love educating you about retirement planning, finance. What’s our topic today? How to prepare fore retirement and we’re on number 12: educate yourself.

Ben: You’re doing it perfectly. I love that. Our podcast, I’m biased, I think there’s a lot of strong content in here, all our archives have lots of different topics. I’m encouraging people to pick up a financial magazine once in a while. Listening to our show or other types of financial medians will help you do that too. Sometimes a book on something intentional where you’re saying that’s something they’re talking about, I really want to understand more about that, creating that awareness of the jargon that exists, building more depth will allow you to have a deeper conversation. One of the reasons we found value in this show is that we’ll encourage clients not to hesitate to go to the podcast to listen. When you have a question specifically in that, come to us. Maybe your question gets stronger, deeper, more direct, more intentional, more crafted to accomplish the real concern of all the other things going on in the background.

Seth: Some of the concepts are gonna take time. The first time we have a conversation with you, it might be the very first time you’ve been introduced to life insurance as more than life insurance; be your own bank concept; there’s a wealth of information. We’d love to direct you to our resources to educate yourself. Either way, lifelong learning, it’s really A) proven to extend and make retirement a richer time of your life and that’s what this is about. We’d love the opportunity to be apart of that. We’re gonna say listen to MOT podcast. While you’re on a walk, run, in the car, continue to dive into what this list is all about, because this is what we do all the time; we’re talking about this list of 15 in different ways, aspects, in more detail in other shows. The next is #13: set up a will or trust. We’ve had several different attorneys on here with us in the past; we’ll have them come here because things are changing in the estate planning world. What’s important in COVID, during shutdowns, the lockdowns was that the courthouses weren’t open. People were passing away and they weren’t getting people appointed to oversee the will. One of the ways people were getting through this was getting a trust set up, so those assets could have direction, regardless of not having an appointment over those wills. These are critical as a part of you putting together a retirement plan as to give some direction for what happens after you pass away. That’s what that piece is all about.

Ben: The wills and trusts are overlooked completely by most. For wills, Uncle Joe is gonna take care of them and now they’re 22, 25, and your entire financial situation is changed. You don’t have beneficiaries named, you wrote it when you had 1 kid and now you have 3, there’s all these different questions. All the laws change all the time. Power attorneys, maybe you’re on the outs with Uncle Joey and you don’ want him handling your money for your kids. I thin the biggest black hole piece is that you’ve gotta keep that moving forward regularly. That’s part of the good stewardship piece that has to happen. There’s 1000 bad stories, a zillion bad stores on the estate world.

Seth: We’re not gonna break into those. With administration changing, in that trust piece especially, you wanna take a look at that. Those of you who have set up those trusts, go and look what’s coming down the pipe. #14: make planning a regular conversation. I think this’ll really help you because Ben was talking about going out for dinner. Don’t make it the gut wrenching, arguing, everything we possibly can, money, let’s try to make something really enjoyable. Go out and have dinner, whatever it is you guys like to do, go for a walk, I like that one a lot. Get some endorphins going, that’s gonna help and benefit, your mind is gonna be thinking differently. You might come up with completely different ideas. At least get those out there and have conversations regularly.

Ben: #15: talk to people who are retired. Engage people who are already living with the pros and cons, successes, and failures of all they’ve worked for. There’s a lot of things I learned from so many people. Wisdom from others is invaluable, and in this space—I met people who say I bought a house in Tennessee or Florida, and they decide Florida is the place they need to be. There’s a zillion questions as to why people like and don’t like. I get it if you don’t want the advice. I wish I bought a place earlier and enjoyed it with my husband. I regret it; that’s something someone said to me once. Those are conversations you can’t lost from. They’re gonna enjoy company; everyone loves company. A friend of mine, he didn’t wanna be home anymore. That was part of it.

Seth: that’s the thing if you’re engaging retirees, change it. If you only know your aunt and uncle, mom, or dad, seek out other people as well. It’s awesome, it’s a great opportunity to build a relationship. You’d be surprised at how many people would be open and receptive to having conversations about this. There are some principles that are very common. The stories are different but there are some underlying principles that you could start to tie together and create your own story of what you want retirement to be. I can’t wait to hear your stories of what you’ve put together for retirement. You can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. We’ve enjoyed the show today, been grateful for you for joining us. We thank you for calling us and giving us an opportunity to speak into your life and trusting us. We want to appreciate you for that. Thank you so much, and we want to appreciate you for allowing us to be who we are and have fun with what we do on a daily basis. We’re also on Facebook at /3Dinvesting and Twitter at BFG_LLC. We can’t wait to make it a great day and a great life with you here on MOT.

SUMMARY

Money on Tap provides an in-depth look at the best way to manage your finances as you get closer to your retirement goals. Hosted by Ben Brayshaw and Seth Krussman, this podcast is full of vital information for managing your money, being smart with finances, getting an inside look to what professional stock traders and financial planning is all about.

This hour-long podcast is an easy listen and a great way to learn more about how to be smart with your finances.

Most people have wild and elaborate dreams about what retirement looks like. Planning is an essential part of those dreams, so Ben and Seth took the time to write up 15 essential rules to follow when planning for retirement. This episode will make you feel less intimidated by the mountain you may have to climb when it comes to your future. As always, Brayshaw Financial group is just a phone call or email away.

Ben Brayshaw and Seth Krussman are partners of Brayshaw Financial Group. Having questions about retirement and financial planning is normal, and the Brayshaw Financial Group is here to help! Reach out to Ben and Seth at 855-226-8551, or info@yourmoneyontap.com.

MOT Show 157 22506430

Seth: Welcome to MOT. Money on Tap, your personal finance headquarters, where we bring out the professional’s experience and some fun. What we call 3-dimensional investing, utilizing insurance brokerage and fee-based planning, that's what we do on this show. We look at all sides of the issues and we bring a fully independent planning perspective to the table. Welcome to Money on Tap. We're so glad to have you aboard today. My name is Seth Krussman.

Ben: I’m Ben Brayshaw.

Seth: We’re glad to have you aboard today. It’s going to be an interesting show, to say the least. I get excited about the content we have an opportunity to share with you, because we work in it all the time, it’s the main reason we do this. We want to help educate and get the information to you so you can live the best life possible, right? Have loads to look forward to in retirement. We’re gonna have fun along the way, too. Ben? You told me the name of the show, I started to write it down; would you do us the justice of introducing us?

Ben: I’m gonna keep us in line, it’s a burden I must carry. Retirement perception. Today’s going to be a good one. We have so many people out there who have a perception on what retirement is, what they need, and how they’re gonna get it done. We’re gonna talk a lot about the points around that, and what people are having conversations on, and what that means to them, both now and in the future. It’s been a crazy day, there’s a lot of people talking out there—the market’s crazy, we’ve got crazy stuff going on. People are reading the articles about Reddit and what’s happening there. We’ll be doing a story on that in the future, I’m sure. I’m curious what’s going to come out in that. That’s a MITN story, but I’m excited to see how the SCC looks at this piece, and the organized trading philosophies of everyday people manipulating the market. I don’t know that it’s illegal.

Seth: We don’t. We’re in unprecedented times, and we can’t wait to get into it with you. We’re gonna go into MITN.

Ben: The first article up is GameStop is a bubble in it’s purest form. If you were to ask me 6-12 months ago, I’d tell you that GameStop, its company, and stock are a dying business because of the download market. Xbox, kids download games, all that stuff. I would’ve told you that GameStop is dead, but it’s up again. It’s up 140% right now from when this article took place. It’s a company that basically short traders have been trapped in. they shorted the stock, and a collective group of people have moved forward and said ‘we’re gonna buy the stock, and we’re gonna move stuff to Street name and force the stock up, and make the short sellers cover their position.’ They have to buy their stock back, and it’s very interesting as we go through this article, there’s a number of stocks that are being manipulated this way. GameStop, Blackberry, Nokia…this is a crazy inflated bubble that’s being created.

Seth: When I took a look at GameStop years ago, it was one of those things that I’d drop in with Spencer because he wanted to get some discount games. It had a great retail business, but it always seemed to feel like Blockbuster to me. I remember the transition from BB to Netflix, and Netflix didn’t have an online platform, it didn’t have a streaming service. You put in a subscription and you get the DVDs or the Blu-ray. BB did the same thing, but they got left in the dust. GS had Ryan Coen built up and sold the online pet food retailer, Chewy, and now it’s a 13% stakeholder with RC Adventures, GS took a 13% hold in it last year and told him ‘Step up this internet thing.’ There’s been several others who have jumped into this pool, but this Reddit, these cheerleaders on Reddit who have been driving this thing through the roof. It’s incredible because it’s not a stock that makes sense. It’s so far over its skis that it’s a mania that has driven this thing over 70 times higher since August, and anyone who held this stock for 10 days made gains of more than 10 times their money.

Ben: This is not the kind of trading we recommend or even do for our clients. This is one of the most dangerous sides of investing that I would highly encourage you never to consider doing. People shorting companies, it’s an unlimited amount of risk. When you do that kind of thing, I think the people who do short stock are seeing that maybe this isn’t a play to make anymore. A collective group of people can force us out. I think with our world and the marketplace, and how it has become something that—10, 20, 30 years ago you couldn’t move as a collective. We have so much communication, so much ability to organize, this is an impactful kind of targeted piece. It’s a phenomenal thing that has happened here. It’s the birth of a collective movement in the stock trading world that a lot of people are not giving, or don’t even know that this is the infantile stage of this.

Seth: Yeah. We talk about the water cooler a lot, right? You used to go to the water cooler to get your trades or talk about what the broker’s doing. Everyone wants to go hang out with people at work and tell them what their winners were. The sowing mentality is the other way to look at it. People had all these conversations about things, and it’s so much larger and faster and coordinated than it ever could’ve possibly been before. Even just going back into the Facebook IPO days, where people knew about Facebook, there wasn’t this platform out there that people were building this community around. I’m curious to see what the activist—this is activist trading is what I would call this. Their intention, from what we’ve read, seems to be to really put out of business some of these investment firms that have been out there buying and selling these short positions on these, and making significant losses on these things. To think of what could possibly happen is where groups of people go into these ideas and manipulate, is really what it is. It’s coordinated efforts to manipulate on an unprecedented levels, publicly. This is the Wolf of Wall Street stuff, the pump and dump, we’ve made the movies and how bad these people are. I agree, because it was a coordinated effort to buy up a stock, and someone else was saying ‘Okay great, go ahead and see,’ and they’d split the profits, a back door deal. What is the SCC gonna say?

Ben: This is gonna be really interesting, because when we say the word manipulate, the SCC gets really scared. I don’t know if it’s gonna fall under manipulation. It’s like me calling you, Seth and saying, ‘I think we should buy XYZ,’ and you decide to, that’s a free choice. They’re intentionally – who’s to say that not everyone on the radio is gonna say, ‘Let’s go buy it because they told me to do that.’ It’s a recommendation, we wouldn’t do that on the radio, but if we did and everyone followed us, we wouldn’t be manipulating, we’d be saying it’s a good buy.

Seth: I don’t know if coordinated events – if they’re gonna take a look at people like ourselves who are licensed and say, ‘Were you one of the contributors to this,’ as a licensed person, this could be something very…

Ben: You’re gonna be scrutinized hardcore. They’re gonna go after those people first to figure out if it’s legal, and then they’re gonna go after the average joe if it is.

Seth: I wonder if there’s any master stuff going on out there. 200 lemons, 30 bananas, online shoppers accidentally buy too much. Novices who overbuy get creative with their cooking. I salted them, sugared them, juiced them, and maybe this is you who just went bananas, buying online on accident. It’s so easy to do. You’re not gonna pick up 200 lemons at the grocery store and say, ‘give me all that, let’s get it home, I can’t wait to start stewing lemons.’ This is what’s been happening, someone puts another 0 back there and gets 200 lemons on their front porch.

Ben: There isn’t anyone listening who hasn’t made some major mistake on online ordering. We ordered vitamins and got a couple boxes instead of…

Seth: Did you order $200 worth of Vitamin E?

Ben: Every time you open a box and you’re like, ‘Is it their mistake or mine?’ You want to find out before you share with your spouse, ‘That was me…’ This one guy got so many bananas that he was making banana bread and giving it to friends and family. He thought he ordered 5 bananas and got 5 bushels. This article here is very interesting and relevant to today’s world. This is from Bloomberg. It’s the 5 cities ready to build with remote workers in mind. This is late January, January 26^th. There’s 5 cities where the tech world has a lot of interest in having very simplified living. They don’t wanna worry about mowing the lawn, they work random hours, they’ll work 20 hours in a row, and they want a place to get coffee. They compare it to retirement living.

Seth: It is, it’s totally like a retirement home that’s been turned over into these tech nomad facilities that they’ve got these coworking/co-living spaces. Your laundry’s done, bed’s made, you have privacy and your own showers, your own little home. You’re also together with all these people in this community. They’re going out, doing stuff, they’re doing whatever’s in the place to experience. What’s interesting about these remote work hubs, they went out and said, ‘We wanna put out this prize and award these cities to produce these remote work hubs.’ The cities rewarded was New Orleans, but it doesn’t have a large tech industry, Bentonville, AS, Ogden, UT, Rocky Mount, NC, and Rochester, NY. The focus is we want to bring a diversity of workers into this community. The nice thing is the cost of living was the thing that really helped drive the thing for those wanting to move to those areas.

Ben: There’s not a lot of disparity between the workers. It’s expanding diversity, which is the focus.

Seth: It sounds really cool. You’re listening to MOT; you can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. We’ll be right back.

Ben: For a number of our listeners, you might have a lot of questions. We’re offering Zoominars, which are webinars over Zoom where we have top experts: social security, financial and estate planning experts who you can speak with. We’re also having webinar based Zoominars where we’ll have multiple groups, and you can be a part of that in the new year. Reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com to schedule your Zoominar.

Seth: Welcome back. You’re listening to MOT. My name’s Seth Krussman and I’m here with Ben Brayshaw. You can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. We’re both financial planners at Brayshaw Financial Group. This is going to be one of those topics that we work through with our clients on a regular basis. It’s retirement perception. It means a lot of different things, for one. There’s so many ideas that we all come to the table with. We’ve seen grandma, grandpa, mom, dad in a retirement place, and we probably think they’re not working. That’s one thing, our perception around retirement, but there’s a lot of other things that come alongside of that. We’ve seen dad have a career, for instance, my dad was a dentist, and he had a great dental practice, and when he sold that dental practice, one of the things he’d done for himself was that he had another hobby that he was interested in, besides playing golf. That’s one of those that a lot of people think for men, you’re just gonna sail off into the sunset and go golfing. My dad took painting classes, so maybe your perception is, I’ve gotta get something else in my life to enhance my life, because I’ve gotta do something. There’s all these things we think about. What we find is those are some quality of life things that we definitely wanna discuss and have conversations around, but at then end of the day, there’s a financial picture that allows for these different activities and locations that you might live. Different friends you might have, different places you might wanna go. The first question that usually comes up is, how much do I need in retirement? Some of that might be quality of life, but a lot of that comes into the pile of money theory, the quantity of cash that you’ve got to accumulate, we talk about the “ing” commercial of what’s your number all the time, because we’ve got that engrained in our minds. People walking around the town with this number over their head that’s going to equal this quality of life they want to have in retirement.

Ben: I think how we articulate retirement to ourselves, whether you’re the person who says I have to have 1-2 million dollars when I’m 65-70, or maybe you’re the person that says I need 500k and I’m gonna spend it over the years. People define what they need in many different ways.

Seth: The “ing” commercial worked really well because we still talk about it.

Ben: It’s the greatest thing they’ve done in a long time. It’s all about accumulating assets. We talk to people all the time and say there’s 2 phases in life: there’s the accumulation phase, which most of our listeners are in. There’s the distribution page, which is post-retirement. A lot of people have light switch mentality where they say I’ll go see a financial planner when I retire, and I’ll make it work. You can do it that way because people do it all the time that way. Is that the best way? I think that’s what we’re gonna get into today. What do I need, how do I do this, what’s the best way? How much do I need for retirement, there’s so many different pieces. I think using that million dollar number is a good conversation piece for people. If I have a million dollars and took 5% out, that will give me 50k a year. You forget there’s usually taxes, most plans are 401k, or an IRA, and you get hit hard. There was a study done that says fewer than half of American baby boomers have more than 100k in retirement funds, even though one estimate puts healthcare costs in retirement for an average couple, 280k. Maryland reported that, and they suggest 1 in 15 Americans don’t know how much money they’ll need in retirement. Most under save by nearly 20%. This is a major problem. We have not considered the amount of people who are unprepared for retirement.

Seth: The numbers are saying one thing here, which is, there’s a significant gap in retirement prep, as far as getting enough cash in those coffers to be able to create that income later on that will last the rest of your life. What’s interesting about that is, this perception piece, is that almost 2/3 of US baby boomers are confident that they can retire with a comfortable lifestyle even though just over 1/3 believe they’re saving enough money. 2/3 are saying ‘I think I can retire comfortably.’ Of those 2/3, you have to believe that there’s 1/3 of them that believe they’re saving enough money. That’s a totally different story. How can you think you’re gonna be comfortable? There’s 2/3 that think they’re gonna be comfortable, but there’s only 1/3 of those that really get it, that they’re not saving enough money. This is not gonna work. That’s optimistic, and we love optimism, we need that, because it can fuel so many different things in our ability to compensate if that doesn’t work out.

Ben: If you have less than half of America under 100k, somewhere between 40-50% have over 100k to retire, that means more than 50% of people have less than 100k. Baby boomers, specifically. In your point, 1/3 of those people understand that they don’t have enough money, right? Let’s say it’s 45% of Americans don’t have enough, okay? 45% of Americans have less than 100k, 1/3 of them know it. You’ve got 10-15% of people that don’t know it. That’s a good 10-20 million people that have no clue that they’re not prepared for retirement.

Seth: It’s a problem, right?

Ben: They’re naively not aware. They’re just people that say, ‘I don’t have enough money to retire.’ I don’t know if in this study they take into account inheritance, a lot of things. A lot of baby boomers are getting ready to inherit money big time. Just because they don’t have it saved doesn’t mean they don’t have it coming through. You’re right, Seth, this is a massive issue, and that’s why we’re doing this show. There’s this unaware crowd, or even the aware crowd that don’t have enough. Every day, they go to work, diligently, wholeheartedly, trying to make a living, doing the best they can, in the middle of a pandemic, and I think we’re gonna try and help set the record straight and give people real opportunity to move forward.

Seth: Ben and I are problem solvers. That’s what we do, and we love doing this. That’s what we’re gonna focus on the majority of the rest of our time on, getting into solution mode. You may not perceive yourself as a problem solver, but you are. You’re here today, you’re listening, and you want to make it better. #2. We’re gonna work on getting a correct perception. If you’ve been digesting the bits and pieces there, there’s a disparity between the way we perceive things, and the way things are. One of the things that’s an accepted rule out there is that if you save 15% of your yearly salary, that’s a good thing, you’re on that track. ½ of Americans save less than this, or nothing at all.

Ben: 15% is a lot of money, okay? In the Bible, it talks about giving 10%, and give to Caesar what’s Caesar’s. It talks about giving to Caesar first, and then 10%. In New England, people tithe 1-2%, as opposed to the 10% in the Bible. You’ve got people that don’t tithe at all, and you’ve got people who do the full 10%, and then everyone else in the middle. 15% is a tall order, right? I’ve gotta pay taxes, and you’re supposed to tithe, save 15%? You’re talking ½ your money is gone. This is one of the conundrums that people are fighting.

Seth: It is a significant challenge, we work in 401ks a lot of the time, and that’s one of the most popular savings tools today. It can be one of the easiest things to utilize. How do we use the tools around us to get into a mode. It’s a reduction of your income because there’s less taxability. If we were to say first steps, if you have something like this in front of you, start small, and you can increase. If the frog jumps into boiling water, it jumps right out. If you start off, and you’re saying, ‘I’m saving nothing, but now I’m gonna get 15% save it.’ If you don’t fluctuate your lifestyle and you’re not okay with that, it’s gonna be a tough deal. We’re just gonna outline, this is a place to start. Most Americans aren’t doing it, so we’re gonna get on that side of the coin, it’s gonna start putting something else into practice here. If you’re younger, this will be easier for you. The perception is, I’ll do it later in life, but that is not the way you want to approach this. We’re gonna talk more about that. The way compound interest works, it works overtime. You can’t change that, the more time, the greater that compound interest and the accumulation is going to work for you. This idea over here is that I can make it up later when I make more. Guess what’s gonna happen in that? You’re gonna spend more if you don’t make the change now. Guarantee ya.

Ben: Well said. Our number 3 here is, there’s no pot of gold, even a pot of cash won’t last. This is really interesting. A lot of people say I want to die with 1 penny in my bank account. Some will save their money to hit a certain period of a number of years to try and accomplish their retirement needs. I need 50k a year, if I put a million dollars away, that’s 20 years of income no matter what. They had this cash piece. It’s a concerning thought and issue because people don’t trust the market. In the UK, people aged 55 and older can lump sum out their pension and choose to invest it or keep it in cash. Their pension age is 65, but at 55 they can pull it out. They’re finding people are doing this—the vast majority. It’s a problem for their pension system because people that are 55 are pulling it out and sticking it in the bank. They’re pulling the cash out as they need the income and staring that down from a tunnel of years. I don’t wanna have to worry about the pension system and not having the income. I tell people all the time, owning cash, even in the USD—this is the UK, it’s not UK only. My pension at XYZ hospital or manufacturing is offering me this large sum of money to leave and forfeit a pension option, and we need to do an evaluation on whether that makes sense or not. you say to yourself, why is that pension company offering those dollars? They’re offering the dollars because they don’t want the liability of paying you income for the rest of your life. You have to understand where that tradeoff is. If you have questions about the security of your pensions, we’ve had shows about concerns about your pensions, shows about the PCBG, go back into our archives, listen to those. If you don’t wanna take those risks on, that’s a big deal. We’ve actually uncovered and discovered that…

Seth: These pensions are guaranteed, it’s possibly fallible, and we understand why. We understand why some people in the UK would say yeah, I’m gonna take that lump sum. The misunderstanding here is what the real value of that cash is, and how to use that. So many of them don’t know how to save money for a budget or fixed income. They rarely understand how to invest wisely. We’re gonna talk about that—what’s the next thing in this? #4: what you need to do. You need to get in front. I don’t care if it’s Zoom, in person, but you need to get in front of the right advisor to help you and get you educated now. This is not a tomorrow. This is your life, this is the significance of your future and understanding and changing perceptions, getting educated, getting the right info is going to be a conversation that isn’t gonna happen with mom or dad, uncle, or aunt, whoever the person in your life that’s speaking into your life. Allow somebody like your doctor to have that opportunity to work with you. Whatever level you’re at; we have so many people that come to us and think ‘I’m not there yet.’ Let’s talk about “there yet.” This is one of the reasons that we, Ben, and I, are here today at MOT. It would be great to do some kind of a financial radio show and have that turn into a windfall for Ben and I. Maybe that’s your perception, to represent BFG. That’s a part of it. We wanna work with the right people here. Inside of Ben and I, after working with so many of our clients, and Ben doing so many seminars and working in these public arenas, we’re trying to help people grasp and work through some of the challenges that they’re facing right now, and they haven’t discovered what’s yet to come. We wanna help people. We wanna educate you. That has to be something that is there with that person that you are talking with. That’s what this is about at MOT.

Ben: I think you bring up a good point. We believe in education. I’ve always believed in education. If you empower people, they’ll be better clients and more profitable. I believe my clients have strong, valuable opinions. When I present something to somebody as an idea, if something seems broken or off in the presentation, and they’re aware enough to look at the strategy and say, ‘I don’t think this works,’ when that happens, there’s a disconnect between me understanding the concerns of the client and what they’ve communicated. They may have told me I’m concerned about XYZ, and we’ve created a plan that supports that, but they may have forgotten one small detail. Usually it’s a communication issue. If we don’t empower, educate, if we don’t give them all the pieces to give them valuable decisions, they can’t communicate back. Even with this radio show, Seth, this has become an educational piece for us. We’ve been able to give so many more people empowered knowledge that we have. I always tell people, don’t go work with your nephew that just got in the business. Find a reputable company that can do this. Growth isn’t what it’s about, it’s about meeting your needs. One of the things with this radio show specifically, we never planned on doing a radio show.

Seth: You called me up and were like, ‘Do you want to,’ and I was like, ‘not really.’

Ben: We were working with another financial planner and he wanted to do a radio show. We helped organize it and get everything in line. Once we had everything set up and commitments to the radio station, he didn’t wanna do it anymore. He got cold feet. We’re doing this today, because of that cold feet and the obligation to do it.

Seth: What’s the best name you can come up with in 3 days? Ummm…

Ben: I remember talking to my brother and telling him I’m doing a radio show. He’s an HR exec, and we spent 3 hours on the phone, playing with word phrases…boom! MOT came up. It’s been 4 years now, and we’ve had so many people who have thanked us and appreciated the information. We know there’s more people out there, and we’re glad this is here. Our point is that education is what you need to do. I’m glad you’re listening to the show today because that’s what you’re doing.

Seth: This is a good spot to take a break. We’ll connect more on our story. You are taking these pieces, you wanna know what long term care is, great, we’ve got a show. You can do it on your walk, your jog, wherever you’re at. We’re gonna take a break. Ben, how often do we have someone come into the office and they don’t have a financial plan? And how critical is it for us to put the pieces together and make sure that their future, their retirement is a successful experience? Whether you’re an investor or not, you can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. If you have 100k, 250k, 5 million, we have the right planner for you. Ben, I, Seth Krussman, we’re here for you to get the plan together and make sure that that next step is right. Back to MOT with Ben and Seth. Welcome back. You’re listening to MOT. My name’s Seth Krussman and I’m here with Ben Brayshaw. You can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. Today we’ve been diving into retirement perception, or misperception is what a lot of it can be, and how do we correct some of those things that we’ve had misunderstandings around? We discover all those things when we sit down and have conversations with you. #5: seek help often and early. We can’t even describe how awesome it is to have younger people, a lot of the time couples, younger people coming in and saying hey, this is what I’m thinking about doing, and here’s my life, here’s what it looks like on a piece of paper, or on a spreadsheet, or in general. These are my ideas. I can’t tell you how many people I have that come through, we have conversations with that – I love the one that corners me at the holiday gathering and they say can I ask you a question? The fact is, in dealing with all these things, how much value is your time? That’s the question I come back to. How can we shortcut the process or path to get you where you need to go, or want to go? That doesn’t happen. If you want the shortcut, I’m not a mechanic, right? Ben’s done a ton of building things, but if I want to get into electrical stuff, it’s gonna take me some time to go onto YouTube and figure this all out.

Ben: It’s just getting help and doing it early. A lot of people do it late, and it’s not that it’s too late, it’s just late. They’re steps away from retirement, they retired 2 weeks ago. I’d rather someone come to us early. How many people come to us and say I don’t have enough money to manage, my accounts are way too small to manage. The reason we don’t have a minimum is that we try to find clients that are good fits. We can help you get to your goals quicker. If you need a certain amount of money to retire, but you’re shooting for a number on the ceiling of how much you wanna have in your retirement plan, if we can help that number be lower, that might sound silly. That means you may get to retirement quicker because you weren’t working so much longer to make the income you need for retirement.

Seth: My dad was a dentist, right? I grew up with going to the dentist all the time. Actually it was only once a year, but today it’s every 6 months you go to the dentist. What if you postponed that for 20 years? How painful is knowing you wouldn’t have had to experience all the pain? Take care of yourself, take care of your finances.

Ben: That’s a good one. We want you to contact us soon. We want you to reach out to us. Go to someone that you trust, and we’ve met people who we knew we could help, but the connection wasn’t there. Trust, engagement, camaraderie, that’s all part of it. It’s a relationship that you’re working with someone to help facilitate the success. You know what I tell people all the time? The reason I say don’t go to your cousin or nephew, it’s because if they haven’t had—they may be a proven person. You have one chance to retire successfully. You have one chance to do this right. This isn’t buying a backpack that’s wearing out and going somewhere to buy another one. If they lose your money or fail, it’s over. That’s serious.

Seth: That’s interesting. #6: where are you taking risk? That’s a risk you’re taking when you’re talking or reaching out to someone. That’s a risk, right? So often we find people early on in the accumulation phase. These people aren’t taking risk. They’re got the cash in the mattress mentality, and that puts them so far behind where they need to be. The risk is that they’re not taking risks. Even though everything inside of them tells them they can’t stand the thought of being volatile, there are so many things they can put into place that can help them get the right kind of risk for them. In accumulation, you have to do that as much as possible. We talk about that in other shows as well. We also have the late bloomer, or someone coming towards retirement who says I haven’t done the accumulation. In order for me to get where we need to go, I have to take on all this, and they go to the opposite side of the spectrum there. Understanding that part, of how do you do this, and when do you take this risk on is so critical.

Ben: One thing I always tell people is that the market is intuitively risky. Understanding your risk is the first thing. We did a whole show on how to build the house, foundational elements, etc. and that’s really something if you don’t understand that concept, listen to that show, but give us a call. I can explain to you the foundational concepts, the financial structure that you can live in, just like a house. The last thing you wanna be doing is working with an options broker and losing a ton of money potentially. Or Robinhood, any of these crazy things, or the GS we talked about. There are so few people getting rich on that stuff, compared to all the people that are losing a ton of money. You just need to step back and shoot for success. You want a successful experience, and if you’re looking to make a zillion dollars, you’re gonna get burned. I teach my kids about that. We trade inside their accounts, and that’s something we talk about. We talk about understanding investing compared to gambling, and how that’s different.

Seth: #7: Everything comes back to income. At the end of the day, it’s all about my liabilities and my income. One of the things we find is that it’s really hard to create income. You’re doing it in a job, or a career, but in a transition from that accumulation, do you know how to do that and do it effectively? At the end of the day, if you don’t know how to make that pile of money create another pile of money that you continue to live through, it’s an epic fail. There are so many different ways to generate and create income. Do that throughout your life, the rest of your life, that’s what it’s all about.

Ben: That’s great. I think no matter how many people may argue, it’s about income, but I really need to have this much $ in retirement, I need to put this much $ away in my 401k—those are all questions around the element that needs solving. If you’re listening today and you’re not sure what we mean by income, income, income…you’re gonna have expenses in retirement, and the only thing offsetting those expenses is the income, and everyone knows that. It’s all about how you translate how much income you need off of what your assets are. It’s all about how much income you need in the future, and how that’s projecting that success. If you focus on developing a strong story around how to build that income in all the different ways that have to do with, how much are you gonna pay on taxes, how much are you building that may be tax free, all of those different things that might come into play. It’s all about coming to the income number. If you’re never solving the income number of what you need, you’re never gonna know what number you need to get to. Where am I planning on retiring?

Seth: I love it. That’s it. You’re listening to MOT. You can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. We’ve enjoyed the show today, been grateful for you for joining us. We thank you for calling us and giving us an opportunity to speak into your life and trusting us. We want to appreciate you for that. Thank you so much, and we want to appreciate you for allowing us to be who we are and have fun with what we do on a daily basis. We’re also on Facebook at /3Dinvesting and Twitter at BFG_LLC. We can’t wait to make it a great day and a great life with you here on MOT.

SUMMARY

Money on Tap provides an in-depth look at the best way to manage your finances as you get closer and closer to retirement. Hosted by Ben Brayshaw and Seth Krussman, this podcast is chock full of information regarding managing money, being smart with finances, and a beginner’s guide to stocks. This hour-long podcast is an easy listen and a great way to learn more about how to be smart with your finances.

In this episode of Money on Tap, Seth and Ben break down seven different ways that retirement can be perceived. For many people, retirement contains visions of living somewhere where it’s always sunny and a cool 70 degrees, but the reality is a retirement in that form takes a lot of hard work and financial planning. Brayshaw Financial Group is here to help so that your dreams of a successful retirement can actually become reality.

Ben Brayshaw and Seth Krussman are partners of Brayshaw Financial Group. Having questions about retirement and financial planning is normal, and the Brayshaw Financial Group is here to help! Reach out to Ben and Seth at 855-226-8551, or info@yourmoneyontap.com.

MOT Show 156  22399477   Hindsight is 2021

Seth: Welcome to Money on Tap. Money on Tap, your personal finance headquarters, where we bring out the professional’s experience and some fun. What we call 3-dimensional investing, utilizing insurance brokerage and fee-based planning, that's what we do on this show. We look at all sides of the issues and we bring a fully independent planning perspective to the table. Welcome to Money on Tap. We're so glad to have you aboard today. My name is Seth Krussman.

Ben: And I'm Ben Brayshaw.

Seth: So, if you didn’t know, this is 2021. I think we’ve bounced off the bottom, I think this is as bad as anyone will ever experience in our lifetime. Hindsight is 2021, and we have a whole new set of money rules in 2021. That’s it.

Ben: This is gonna be an interesting show. We’re throwing out the baby with the bathwater on this one. The world has been preaching standard hard and fast rules of how much money you should have on hand, how you should use credit cards, but we have a whole new set of rules to live by, and the world is experiencing that.

Seth: Hopefully, you enjoyed the last few weeks. We took a break. Taking a break meant that there was a lot more work on the front end. If you’ve ever taken a vacation, you have to have yourself all prepped up. It was a ton work getting those nuts and bolts shows put together for you. Hopefully, you enjoyed the best of 2020. It’s hard to believe there was a best of 2020, but there was a ton of shows that we did that were way out of—it gave us an opportunity to introduce different concepts, different ways of working through money, hardships, you name it. It came through, rose to the surface in 2020. I think we’re gonna say having fun in ’21. We’re looking forward and we’re optimistic. I think we have to be in this industry. I don’t know how you can be a pessimist working in finance and towards retirement goals. You have to put on that—even though you’re prepared with 2020. We’re gonna talk about the new rules of 2021. We have an optimistic perspective here. We’re hopeful, we have faith. We come back to trusting God as our source in all of these matters, and that’s the filter that Ben and I operate from, and we’re grateful for that. We’re grateful for you to be here with us today. Hopefully, this time we get to spend together is fruitful. It’s time for MITN. Vanguard Group said it has liquidated it’s holdings of US-sanctioned Chinese companies. I can’t tell you how grateful I am to hear. This is a Bloomberg from Bloomberg News as of Jan 12^th. Basically, the investment advisors sold off its stakes of the affected firms, as of Jan 8^th. What else? These are the companies that have been sanctioned and we have been told get out of China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom, Hong Kong. They’re doing it.

Ben: It’s about time that as a country, we make a stand for certain things. No matter what political stand you’re on, there’s something with the Chinese piece that needs to be addressed. I’m glad to see them following this executive order and getting out of them. There’s been a lot of fraud, I don’t think a lot of people know that. I’m thinking of Lucking Coffee, the coffee manufacturer in China. There was a huge amount of fraud inside it. People were psyched about the rise and got taken hard. I think some of the things we trust and believe are being followed in other countries, we can’t take for granted that the US has a very rigid set of investment rules that protect you as an investor. Other countries don’t adhere to that stuff. When you buy inside other countries, they can get away with things you couldn’t get away with in the US, and cause fraud. I’m glad to see these companies taking a big step and doing that.

Seth: Is this unprecedented? I don’t ever remember anything like this happening.

Ben: I don’t either. I guess I wouldn’t know to say it was unprecedented, because I know there are other countries we don’t do—ADR receipts aren’t available to us. I believe there are limitations, but for China, this is a huge step. I think it’s the right direction, I think it’s appropriate because we need to protect investors in the US. China, who have billions of people, they need to adhere to things so that we know when we’re investing, what we’re getting into. They need to adhere to various agreements. Onto our next article, Seth. GM shares hit a record high as auto makers reveal electric fan, and they delve into flying cars. The pictures of the vehicles are interesting, but GM is rolling out an electric van at the end of this year. The Detroit automakers stock was up 8.8% as of Tuesday morning, leading to a 70 billion market cap. It’s previous high was 46. This is interesting, the EVC-600 electric is set to go on sale this year, and it’s called Bright Drop. The division is planning a full portfolio of electric products, including a delivery palette that was unveiled Tuesday. This is a big deal because GM was trying to get involved with Nicolai, and other vehicle manufacturers, and they’re moving forward one way or another.

Seth: I’m excited to see this. The movie iRobot, it was about future world stuff, right? Everybody’s got these robots that take care of everything for them, and there’s this army of robots rolling out. I won’t get into it. I’m totally off the subject, but I love how there’s the futuristic piece, and they’re going for it. It’s something that I’ve never seen before. It’s amazing and I’m really excited that it’s us. What a great pivot for them. The Nicolai motors really took a dive this year, one of the worst investments ever. More will be revealed, but we’re talking about electric vans that do it all. They’re autonomous and they say 2040, and I think it’s probably going to be in the next 5 years. We’re gonna see a rollout of these kinds of vehicles for us. We’ve got Tesla with self-driving cars. I was watching some of my friends drive down to CA and fool the sensors with some clips. They were hands off the steering wheel and letting it go down I-5.

Ben: Morgan Stanley predicted the market to be worth 1.5 trillion by 2040. The flying vehicles can transport people between rooftops and other urban destinations. GM has designed models of both autonomous concepts, but computer renderings were created during the simulations. This is a big deal. This all has to do with 5G. They need the speed of 5G to make this plausible, and they’re trying to push back 5G. Even if it can take a passenger, their goal isn’t to have a passenger. When we talk about technology speeds and the control of this stuff—1.5 trillion could be low, for all I know.

Seth: The term is EVTOL. These are the autonomous, vertical launch aircraft going from top of building and carrying single passengers. We’re gonna hear so much more about this, and pretty exciting to see where this is out. There’s JOEY, Boeing, and Hyundai Motor. I love Hyundai.

Ben: Next on our list, last for MITN here. This is a NYT article, and it’s a topic of conversation these days, and it’s interesting in a lost of ways. The title is lost password lock millionaires out of their big coin fortunes. This is crazy. Nathaniel Pauper comes out with this article talking about all these people who got into Bitcoin a decade ago. One guy said he got paid $7k bitcoin as a joke for some technology he did.

Seth: What’s the value of that? It depends on the day, right? Bitcoin is so volatile. It was valued at an all-time high at $20,000 per Bitcoin, bringing the total of that wallet of—

Ben: $220 million.

Seth: $220 million of that buyout of $7k Bitcoin?

Ben: Yeah. It’s one of those things where this guy lost the password, which is known as the Iron Key. I don’t know much about Bitcoin, I don’t wanna touch it. He can’t access his money at all. Did I have a dollar sign before or after the T? Did I use a number at the end?

Seth: It was actually written on a piece of paper that got lost. He tried all his normal passwords. There’s a period until you can’t access it at all. He’s two attempts away from that happening. The article says that there’s an existing $18.5 billion Bitcoin. $140 billion are lost. These are corporations, and there’s people out there that are dedicated to doing the password recovery as well. That’s a secondary industry that’s been born out of this. It went on to talk about other people who have lost—I think this was the $25 million. His roommate reformatted his laptop that had passwords on it, and that was the $25 million. I think he was doing some mining and now he’s been able to buy his own private island. He bought 100 acres in Barbados. Both of these gentleman that are in these articles have done well because at the end of the day, they continued to get paid for this and operate through these channels. It’s interesting, their solution is to air lock their backup data and put it away. It was ruining them to think abut how much money was there and they couldn’t access it.

Ben: Bitcoin is the largest mover of illegal activity in the world. They were sending people with bank problems to Bitcoin because they didn’t want the bank to go defunct. Bitcoin didn’t require ID, didn’t have anyone else access it, it became the black-market world of stuff. PayPal are involved with it, but they were talking about in Barbados, you couldn’t open a PayPal account. If you don’t use bitcoin for something, it’s just the attraction of bitcoin that makes it go up. It has to have a value, a reason or purpose, it’s not an everyday spending item. I’m still confused long term where this has its play. There’s gonna be something because people have all this money. It’s one of these things where it’s become – you can open a wallet that you can hide money, and nobody knows where it is. People have keys, lose them, and their wealth is gone.

Seth: One of them had to say, one of the lessons learned was that you’re managing your own banking if you’re doing Crypto. You’re on the hook, and you’re responsible for your own banking. Taking that liability yourself, that’s one of the reasons you use the bank, because you want them to have the responsibility of securing, maintaining, and knowing you will have access to that. That’s one of the things we’re blessed with here in the states. Other countries can roll up to the bank, seize assets, do whatever they want.

Ben: That’s gonna do it for us with MITN. We have hindsight is 2021: New Money Rules for you moving forward. Nothing hard and fast.

Seth: You’re listening to MOT; you can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. We’ll be right back.

Ben: For a number of our listeners, you might have a lot of questions. We’re offering Zoominars, which are webinars over Zoom where we have top experts: social security, financial and estate planning experts who you can speak with. We’re also having webinar based Zoominars where we’ll have multiple groups, and you can be apart of that in the new year. Reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com to schedule your Zoominar.

Seth: Welcome back. You’re listening to MOT. My name’s Seth Krussman and I’m here with Ben Brayshaw. You can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. It’s 2021 and we are taking a look at hindsight is 2021, and new money rules in 2021. This is gonna be fun, because I think we’re gonna take a look at this last year and we’re gonna apply some of what we’ve learned from a season of pandemic, and how can you roll into 2021 having some keys at your disposal? What’s changed, and what’s new, and how are we looking at personal finance differently? Hopefully, it’s helpful. First off, we’re gonna talk about your emergency fund, folks. This is one of those things that we’ve in the past—was 3 months. You wanna have 3 months in the bank in case that rainy day fund, you don’t know what’s gonna happen, makes sense, right? You wanna stay liquid as much as 3 months is possible, but in a pandemic that potentially is a complete change in your industry. Let’s say you own a gym or a restaurant. 2 off the top of my head that are industries that have been significantly affected. Commercial real estate, retail, there’s a lot of industries that have been affected. Maybe you’re part of a company that says we don’t need an outside salesperson anymore, and you don’t have a job today. And you’ve gone without a job for 6 months, 9 months, whatever the time period is, it’s been longer than you anticipated. That 3-month liquid in the bank didn’t cut it. Do we say 6 months now? Do we say if you’re a businessowner and you’re trying to keep that restaurant or gym afloat, maybe we’re looking at closer to 9 months.

Ben: This is a big question. There’s a variety with what’s going on in this world. Who you’re employed, how, what, etc. This isn’t a normal piece. This is I wanna work and the govt won’t let me. This is out of their control. There’s hard working Americans that need help. I’ll drive by and see someone on the side of the road. Sometimes we’ll do something, most of the times I don’t. I sometimes think, why aren’t they working, and why are they taking advantage of me? I don’t know where I got that kind of innate feeling, but now I look at people and they’re like, I can’t work, govt shut down. It’s a real issue. There’s gotta be an organizational way to manage helping people like this. I’ve seen report after report, and I don’t wanna get on a tangent here, but I’ve watched people pleading with the govt open up, demanding it, it’s their freedom, and I agree with all those pieces. I know people are scared and fearful, but if someone wants to be open so they can feed their family and take the risk, we have to let that happen now. That’s the camp I’m in. that gives you perspective of the control our govt has, and all these potential new virus versions aren’t as lethal, supposedly, but catchier. It tells you that your emergency fund 3-month story probably isn’t the right one, even if you’re a stay-at-home IT consultant. If you’re an IT consultant for a car sales company, they’re gonna lay you off because they don’t need people in the car. We just don’t know. People think they have those jobs that will always be necessary, and the truth is, that’s not necessarily the case anymore. How much time is enough? That’s a conversation.

Seth: You work for Intel? That’s at Intel’s discretion, and they’re making moves, they’re making all sorts of changes to stay ahead, because that’s what technology has to do. Nike—those are the 2 big employers here, where we see time and time again, these aren’t recession proof, they’re not pandemic proof. It’s a challenge, I will say it. I get it, it’s a challenge to get to a point where you have 6 months in reserves, or 9 months in reserves. We get it, but that’s a really important factor that we’ve learned this last year and seen so many people challenged through.

Ben: It carries us right to the story.

Seth: #2: Pay with cash whenever possible. I didn’t say that right, did I? Yes I did. It’s always a good idea to avoid accumulating debt. This goes without saying. It’s wise. However, credit cards can offer a ton of benefits, including fraud protection, purchase price protection, and with more people shopping online, credit cards are really the best way to save money and protect purchases. That goes against so much of what we’ve been taught, but this is the way things are today.

Ben: People are like, cash, cash, cash, and that’s been the story of every major financial budgeting guide in the world. With all that’s happening, buying with cash might be that you pay it off quickly on a credit card, that might be the scenario you go with. There’s people who have been scammed financially over this. You can’t see the person, you can’t go to the store, you’re buying on Amazon with a 3^rd party retailer, you got all these different things. You’ve gotta be careful.

Seth: Even just going to the brick and mortars, how many different hacks have there been? Target was one of them in the last year. The nice thing about that is if you’re using that credit card and you’re paying it off, there might be other benefits in there as well. The challenge becomes where that’s the mode people live through and we talk about the pain of handing over that cash, that transaction. There’s the tactile part of that that we respond, the biomechanics of it. It’s a new, learned discipline is what it is. It can protect you.

Ben: This is the next piece. If you’re in a financial hardship, #3 is never having a balance on your credit card. We’re not in a traditional world, and responsible Americans are facing survival, in some circumstances. I would love to think that we could potentially live without a credit card balance, but if that’s what’s keeping a roof on your head, if that’s what’s feeding your children, getting you through this time to survive, you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do. The world knows that, and there’s a lot to be said for that, hoping to get past this. There’s people out there that are fighting this emotional, I’ve been taught this, and they’re getting down. The depression and suicide rates are at all-time highs, horrific things happening all over the place. There’s kids in my kids’ classes that have taken their own life. It’s horrible, but that doesn’t even account for the number of adults that have done this. Some of it has to do with feeling like a failure, like I’ve broken something someone told me to do, I can’t do it any other way without being a success. There’s millions of people that lived in poverty and came to success. If that means having a balance on your credit card, through that rule out the door. Don’t feel ashamed or bad about that.

Seth: I’d take that 1 step further where that balance on that credit card has gotten to whatever limit. It’s gotten cut off and you haven’t been able to – let’s say you have a limited resource of whatever income that looks like because life has changed. Making the decision to A) pay that credit card or B) keep the lights on and food on the table? Folks, let it go. Your credit can be recovered. You will have – this is not gonna be permanent, it’s temporary, as all things are. Letting go of that identity that you have perfect credit, and that’s who you are, or that’s what’s important – it hurts, it’s not fun, but it’s what’s important for you to keep yourself and your family and what’s important intact. The credit card companies are gonna be fine. You’ll have a chance to come back at whatever level, whatever time, and be made whole, but that’s a critical mode to go to. This is a survival mode. That’s what we’re talking about, folks. Do what you need to do to survive.

Ben: #4: real estate is always a good investment. This is interesting because there’s a lot of moving parts. We’ve got a number of these things. We’re gonna boogie through these, but is real estate always a good investment? There’s one piece that has to do with life and the quality of life. There’s a lot of people moving out of NYC and moving up to the New England states so they can have a yard and not be trapped in skyscrapers. As for investments, there’s 100-year cycle between 1890 and 1990 that the inflation on US housing was just about 0. Real estate isn’t always a great investment. There’s people who make money in real estate, and there’s people who lose money in real estate. There’s no one in the middle. Owning your own house, your own place to stay, that’s a wonderful thing to have, but you’ve gotta be aware of those scenarios.

Seth: I’d add reference Kira, Kira’s my wife who we’ve had on the show before. We don’t look at the house we live in as an investment. Not in the traditional sense, the investment that we make is in our community, our neighbors, our relationship, the quality of life that we have here, that’s what we’re investing in. We’re investing in memories, time together. If that’s not possible, if that house has you wrung out financially, that’s not a quality of life you wanna have.

Ben: #5, we’ve talked to people about retirement plans, and this would tier for each person very directly to what their needs are. If you have a specific question on this, feel free to give us a call: 855-226-8551. With this pandemic, maxing out your retirement plan, and if you’re trying to make things happen, stop the pressure, stop everything that’s making you feel like you have to do that. For some people, I’d say if you haven’t dropped it down, or you’re thinking about doing that, I’d drop it down to the match, if your company provides that. If you’re struggling to pay your bills, you shouldn’t be worried about your retirement plan. We’ll figure this out another day. Get through this, survive, keep things well enough as is. Some people may be dipping into their retirement plans to address that. We’re not gonna address it today, but if that’s the case, there’s loan privileges, things you can do to mitigate taxes in that scenario. Give us a call on that. We’d be happy to talk with you.

Seth: #6: cash or credit cards. Are these your only payment options? A lot of people are making the mistake of overextending and relying on credit cards to pay for everyday things they need. That happened to a lot of us in 2020. There are some other programs to consider, other than these cash credit. That’s a buy now, pay later option. This has been around for a while, I think. It’s the layaway plan. You buy it, but you have 0 payments for 12 months.

Ben: It’s exactly that, it’s 12, 24, 36 months, maybe 5 years. You get it now and you pay for it later, but this is interesting because there’s 0% interest on a lot of these things. We’ll get you this because you need it, you just have to pay us in 2, 3, 4 years. Buyer beware. I did this with Home Depot, it was 24 months interest free. At the end of 24 months if I hadn’t paid it off in full, not that I hadn’t started paying it. If I hadn’t paid it off in full, it was a backtrack of interest for the entire—

Seth: They charge you a 22% rate for the 24 months.

Ben: Yeah, it was crazy. It wouldn’t charge you from the date you paid it off, but everything before that was atrocious. It’s astronomical how horrible that is. You’ve gotta be aware of that and make sure you don’t get caught.

Seth: You can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. We’re gonna take a quick break. We have a lot of fun doing this show. Ben and I have been financial planners for years. Our goal is to bring you into the room, have these conversations. We think they’re critical for you. We understand this is a limited space. What we’d love to do is open the doors to us so you can experience what it means to have 3D planning in your life. Let’s take a look at all sides of your situation, your scenario, to see how we can put together the best plan for you, taking account your risk. How much do we have to have in the market? How much do we have to set aside for life? That’s what we do as planners, we welcome you to do that with us. You can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. if you have $250k that are investable assets today, our planning is free to you. We want you to have the playbook to have a successful experience in retirement. Give us a call: at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. Ben and I welcome you to Brayshaw Financial for complete wealth management. Back to MOT with Ben and Seth. Welcome back, you’re listening to MOT. You can reach us at: at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. we are talking about hindsight is 2021. Money rules in 2021. My name’s Seth Krussman and I’m here with Ben Brayshaw. We’re gonna run out of room on this show, of course. Let’s get going on housing costs compared with your budget. How has this changed?

Ben: There’s a statistic that 30% of your budget should be real estate. That’s kind of moved the dial a lot on that recently. People are saying, I spend all my time at the house, I need a place to work, I’m working out of the house, so I need an office. I’m looking for a home where I can get away from my spouse and my kids, in a quiet space, so I need a bigger home. That’s pushed the envelope on that 30% rule. Whether or not you can afford that, I can’t afford not to have that mentally. There’s that piece that’s driving that.

Seth: If you’re self-employed, you’ve gone from the brick and mortar, putting it in your house is another way to look at this. Creating a full budget where you back into the number, you’ve got all of the piece that you’re needing to have your goals met, maybe there’s some retirement planning that you’ve put as a priority in your budget to make sure you’re putting X amount of dollars per month to reach those goals. You’ve got all the other expenses that you know you have. If that works, a reverse engineering of that number, that’s what we’re talking about. Maybe there’s another combo in there, but maybe getting a fuller picture before you say, hey, 30%.

Ben: #8, this is an interesting one. This one here is all about what’s my number? We always talk about the ING commercial, the guy at the bank is asking and the dial is going 2 million, 3 million, 4 million…in one scenario, savings has massively increased in America, Canada is at it’s highest at all time. The credit scores in America have been at an all-time average. There’s people that are saving, saving, saving, they’re not going anywhere, not traveling, not eating out. Their biggest expense is Netflix, cable, and lights. People are saving money, but for the other set of people, you’re not increasing that wealth. One of the things they said to focus on was looking at your general net worth and making sure you’re hitting net worth increases, based on your general assets rather than focusing on your 401k, having a certain amount of dollars at a certain age, forget that. Continue focusing on increasing your wealth if you can. Don’t worry so much that you can’t max out your 401k.

Seth: This one is interesting to me. You don’t invest until you’re debt free. I can’t tell you how many times we sit down and hear that. With the way things are currently, we’ve talked a lot about different kinds of debt, but we haven’t talked about that school debt. How many people are saddled with hundreds of thousands of school debt, or more? It’s like getting out of whatever education you’ve received, that could be north of 100k, you’re talking 20 years of paying that off with 50-60k a year, that’s gonna put you so far behind the curve, in terms of getting your savings and your retirement on track, that doesn’t make sense, folks. There’s debt where we’d say you wanna knock that out before you’re putting money in a different direction. You need to have an investment mindset and understand that this is a different landscape than our parents or older siblings grew up with.

Ben: There’s a lot of people carrying debt that invested during the market drop and saw a lot of growth. We’re not encouraging it, but we’re saying buyer beware. On a less popular side, about the ROTH bailout, number 10. Don’t ever touch your ROTH IRA, let it grow. The ROTH can take out expenses for unreimbursed medical expenses. There’s a lot of people that may have that, especially after this year. It seems to be a hot button for some people. Your ROTH might be a way to garner some funds to offset those medical expenses when you don’t have income, and you don’t wanna pay taxes.

Seth: You can reach us 855-226-8551, or info@yourmoneyontap.com. you’re listening to MOT, and we’re gonna push on to #11. In retirement, be conservative as an investor, right? In retirement, you have to go to bonds, because that’s the way that it’s been done. When bonds actually had interest, they actually paid you to hold bonds today. In this low interest environment, come on! You’ve gotta stay ahead of inflation, number 1. There’s this balance of volatility, and taking an income off of the assets, dropped down is not what you wanna do. Bonds are moving up and down, people don’t realize that. The old rule as you get closer to retirement, shift more towards equities and bonds. It’s been the 80-20 portfolio, is what you should be in your 30s and 40s, and etc. as you get closer to retirement. That’s what the funds have been doing for people. If you’re thinking that fund is setting you up for success, think again. It’s probably not gonna get you as much as you need in terms of returns to stay on track, and not outlive, I think all that’s going into the investment world right now, and what people have thought is the norm, is not anymore. Get some advice, get some help, figure out how that works, because interest rates are all over the place, that’s what we’re here for. #12 as we wrap up our show today is the theme of everything we’ve talked about inside the first 11. You need to be flexible from this point forward. You need to be able to really know what you can do, get some help to figure out where you need to have bandwidth to address concerns, fears. I tell people that all the planning we do is all about fears, concerns, hopes, and wishes. Its’ not about the facts, it’s not about what you know has to happen. You’re concerned you’re gonna lose your job, not get a raise. You need to be flexible. There’s no hard and fast rules. After what the govt’s done, and I would be as aggressive to say overreaching arches of some govt officials in some area. We don’t know what we don’t know is the next piece. This last year has really shown us that, Seth. We need to be more aware of—it may not be peaches and cream from here on out. We may have another massive pandemic, more shutdowns, Biden said we’re gonna have 100 days. Those are things that—if that’s 100 days, what are you gonna do for 100 days if you’re not gonna work? Those are things we have to prep for? I know someone who lost their job and started sewing masks to pay for food. We’re the most ingenious, capable, we are the greatest country on this planet, and God has blessed us. And I’ll tell you that everyone who sees this podcast has the ability to work something out. We can work together for that. If you have ideas for ways people can garner a living in this time period, share the with us. We’d be happy to share them.

Seth: I don’t know what else to say to that. We’re here to help, and in general, we’re all to help. We all wanna see each other succeed, the neighbor to the left or right, that you may not know. Inside of them, they have a desire to see you do well. Reach out for resources, have conversations. Don’t let fear keep you in this box, or shame in this box. Share your experience with others, because it can make a difference in the person that you don’t know. You don’t know what they need to hear today to get them through. We’ve learned so much, and we’ve helped so many people this year that it’s been a blessing for us where we can help you. We appreciate you so much. Don’t be afraid, reach out, have a conversation. Take all of these things and be flexible and understand that you’re an individual, your circumstance is unique, and there’s a way through. You’ve been listening to MOT. We hope and pray you’re finding success in 2021, that you have lessons you can share with us and others in 2021. Make 2021 fun. We look forward to spending more time with you on MOT, BFG. You can reach us at 855-226-8551 or info@yourmoneyontap.com. we’ve enjoyed the show today, been grateful for you for joining us. We thank you for calling us and giving us an opportunity to speak into your life and trusting us. We want to appreciate you for that. Thank you so much, and we want to appreciate you for allowing us to be who we are and have fun with what we do on a daily basis. We’re also on Facebook at /3Dinvesting and Twitter at BFG_LLC. We can’t wait to make it a great day and a great life with you here on MOT.

SUMMARY

Money on Tap provides an in-depth look at the best way to manage your finances as you get closer and closer to retirement. Hosted by Ben Brayshaw and Seth Krussman, this podcast is chock full of information regarding managing money, being smart with finances, and a beginner’s guide to stocks. This hour-long podcast is an easy listen and a great way to learn more about how to be smart with your finances.

I think we can all agree on the fact that 2020 threw us one of the biggest curveballs. Through all the uncertainties, it is easy to lose hope. Ben and Seth outline twelve money rules to keep in 2020, and a few tips on new rules for 2021. This episode of Money on Tap provides clear answers to the questions you may be having about money, especially in what ways to use it.

Ben Brayshaw and Seth Krussman are partners of Brayshaw Financial Group. Having questions about retirement and financial planning is normal, and the Brayshaw Financial Group is here to help! Reach out to Ben and Seth at 855-226-8551, or info@yourmoneyontap.com.

00:00:00 Welcome to money on tap

00:00:15 money on tap your personal finance

00:00:17 headquarters, where we bring out the professionals experience. So fine in what we call three dimensional investing utilizing insurance brokerage and Seabased planning

00:00:26 that's what we do on this show. We look at all sides of the issues. We bring a fully independent planning perspective to the table

00:00:36 Welcome back, you are listening to money on tap. My name's Seth crust. Man and a bit Rasia glad to have you aboard with us today. If you

00:00:45 are wanting to get a hold of us directly. You can reach us at 8 5 5 2 to 6 8 5 5 1 or info at your money. On tap

00:00:54 dot

00:00:56 com and today,

00:00:58 friends, it is going to be part two friends Patriots and countrymen set. Oh, yes, all of those wherever you're at.

00:01:08 However, however, you're listening to us today through the magic of radio or via podcast.

00:01:15 Gosh, it is gonna be a great show and we can't wait to jump in it's gonna be part two of our estate planning show and we have put together 10

00:01:26 we think really some of the most critical pieces

00:01:30 that you want to have available just a conversation about or at least access to understand a little bit more

00:01:38 about what a state planning can do for you and help you along in your financial journey and

00:01:44 ultimately your family as well that's a good thing that's a good thing that we're gonna do that today.

00:01:50 Great, this is a great show. We've already had people. Even ask us about it, which is interesting. We don't get that much feedback that quick, so that's

00:02:00 Yeah

00:02:01 there's definitely a lot of pieces to a state planning and we're not going to be able to cover them all. But I think

00:02:05 we've got 10 points here. We've done five we're going to kind of recap on that. And we'll knock out the next five. But before we get their set we've

00:02:14 got money in the news.

00:02:24 First up

00:02:26 today it's Christmas time right South it's Christmas time. And

00:02:31 everyone is feeling very Christmassy, so much so. That in the Wall Street Journal is an article here by Lucy Kramer, who says that

00:02:40 Christmas trees are going

00:02:42 for more than 2,000 dollars on an eight foot tree. I don't know that I've ever heard of a tree going for that

00:02:49 much, but that's a whole lot of Christmas spirit is what I got to say.

00:02:54 Yeah, no doubt this is amazing. And I don't really do much Christmas shopping in Hong Kong, but apparently you can pay as much as

00:03:05 2,167 dollars for a noble fur in Hong Kong that's an eight foot Noble for

00:03:14 I'd. Be curious to find where they get their trees from, because that's a long way from here. But we grow a lot of noble. First here

00:03:25 I'll sell one. I got a couple I feel so privileged to just live where we do and have access to what we just. The beautiful,

00:03:37 beautiful Northwest loads of trees never have to really worry about it, but, yeah,

00:03:43 where else was there? There was people scrambling to get Christmas trees in North Dakota. Lots were just completely sold out. And

00:03:52 and everybody is

00:03:54 home for the holidays.

00:03:56 The people people are celebrating and they want to be home. They want to have a Christmas tree and they want to pretend covet didn't exist, I mean I'm all there I'm there.

00:04:06 Yeah, you know what's going to be interesting to see it next year. This time.

00:04:11 All of these lots are gonna be just overstocked because everybody's not home for the holidays. Everybody's in Mexico and Bermuda or some place where

00:04:24 they can forget about 20 20 that's going to be the 20 21 session. Oh, I know you're so right set you're so, right? I mean, nobody wants to be home

00:04:34 anymore everybody's like looking for

00:04:38 put anything on our face to go anywhere to do anything other than be at our house. I mean, even my kids, we were talking about it. So we're supposed to get some snow

00:04:47 and we were talking about the fact that they used to love snow days, they used to long for snow days. Right it's just another day at school to

00:05:00 zoom in on this

00:05:02 day, I will say that I feel bad for the kids because

00:05:07 this whole pandemic has ruined probably snow days forever. Because they're just going to slap on zoom and they're going to say, hey, listen we're still having class.

00:05:15 Yeah, it runs nodes forever. I mean, if anyone has a right to be bad.

00:05:21 I

00:05:22 think the kids really have to revolt on this one item because you know what you can't take the snow day away. You can't do that that's

00:05:31 wrong? Yeah, what you're not feeling well today,

00:05:35 okay? Why don't you go ahead and log in on your iPad. You can watch the class instead of watching a movie, you can watch the class

00:05:45 when we were growing up. Gosh that's what we do now is we talk about ourselves as kids and through the snow, barefoot five miles each way up hill.

00:05:55 Yeah, we didn't have cable. We didn't we didn't have

00:06:00 electronics and devices and stuff like that. If you were home sick?

00:06:04 Gosh, Perry Mason. That was what we

00:06:07 ate very

00:06:10 dated horrible old reruns stuff that

00:06:14 daytime TV. That was that was enough to just motivate you to get back to school very

00:06:22 about. Hey, you know what? So my head is like Colombo Paribas in might be before my time. Well, hey, next up here on money in the news we've

00:06:31 got what Yahoo Finance is calling by Ethan Wolf.

00:06:37 Man the worst company of the year. And that is Seth.

00:06:42 No,

00:06:47 not that one no,

00:06:51 no. The Cola Motor company is the worst company of the year. According to Yahoo Finance, I quote who chose the company in a poll.

00:07:00 They receive five times more votes than the second place

00:07:06 company, this company has been ridden with accusations of

00:07:13 fraud. I mean, the CEO has stepped down. I mean there's just one thing after another that has pulled out the whole partnership with them and

00:07:24 what a train wreck. They don't even know if they have anything that they're going to

00:07:28 sell, I mean they've been subpoenaed now. I mean there's all sorts of things going on. They claim they claim

00:07:37 fervently that they are working on

00:07:42 batteries and self sustaining trucks and all sorts of crazy, wonderful ideas,

00:07:50 but it might just be that it might just be an idea. And that's what the big fear is so that's interesting. So I don't know, I don't really know how to do it.

00:08:01 You got a number of these companies out there they're all

00:08:05 they're all claiming

00:08:07 amazing opportunity and what they're going to do and they want to be the next Tesla and they want to be in the S AMP P 500 and everyone's chasing hoping they find it.

00:08:17 The truth is we don't even know what they've got or don't have. And

00:08:21 I don't know I have read so much on the opposite side of this too. In the concern of just the amount of pollution that the batteries from these vehicles are going to

00:08:33 cause I'm really scared about that

00:08:38 there's some really significant evidence that that's a problem

00:08:42 it's not all greener on the other side, even though. Wow, that was a really good in there. That was great, that is great we're going to tag that stuff. Yeah,

00:08:52 hey it's yours it's for fun and for free as a friend of mine.

00:08:59 So this is a thing, I mean, I mean, chasing some of these kind of wild recap

00:09:05 companies that are going to hopefully spike and do tremendously well. I mean that's a dangerous place to be and I think

00:09:12 that kind of segues pretty nicely into our next article, which is from the Wall Street Journal.

00:09:19 Yeah,

00:09:22 we talked about IPOs last week or kind of shed. A little light

00:09:29 on one of the IPOs of last week. I was so last week. I can't even believe a

00:09:36 week since Airbnb and

00:09:39 DoorDash took flight, but there's been a frenzy in the market for

00:09:44 these new stocks. And what was a door dash shot up

00:09:50 86% there was

00:09:53 Airbnb

00:09:56 doubled and what that's caused is actually a couple of

00:10:00 these IPOs that were scheduled to go out this next week, which was what was a video game company. Rob locks Corp and also the

00:10:10 technology company. Affirm holdings they're moving their listings into

00:10:16 January. Part of what they're citing here is they just don't really understand. What's going on in the market right now it's

00:10:25 been wild to at least to see these IPOs just launched like that they're really trying to avoid that kind of

00:10:36 reaction. In the market when they do release their IPO. So it's the opposite of what I would think really would be if I were launching an IPO, I think I'd be

00:10:48 super excited about it. Doubling and shooting up 86% or something like that. But that's not the case for these guys. Yeah

00:10:57 let's look at some simple facts here and I think this is important for our listeners and understanding IPOs and buyer beware is really where I'm leading here because

00:11:09 door

00:11:12 is valued at

00:11:15 56,000,000,000 dollars

00:11:18 that's just shy of General Motors. Okay? I'm saying to myself, DoorDash delivering food,

00:11:27 big as G and that's in my mind, massively

00:11:34 crazy. Now,

00:11:36 Airbnb, which was evaluated be worth about 83,000,000,000 now that's pulled back

00:11:42 since, but

00:11:43 that's more than FedEx who's flying packages all over the world. Now, to me, Airbnb has a more

00:11:52 substantial argument and I would even say that probably has a more substantial argument as

00:11:57 being worth more with covet because people may not want to be in hotels. They might want to have a separate that's been cleaned it's just them. They don't need to worry

00:12:06 about it wearing masks and go to the pool. And

00:12:10 I can see Airbnb being a bigger place in our community worth as much as FedEx.

00:12:16 Maybe not just yet. So there's a lot of speculation in that. But then you get to companies like

00:12:23 snowflake and it's worth over a hundred billion dollars.

00:12:27 I mean, a hundred billion is an enormous number

00:12:32 that's, actually more than Goldman Sachs I

00:12:36 mean, the article goes through this. And, I mean, this comparison is phenomenal it's great for people to realize that

00:12:43 these IPO numbers are not are nothing more than what someone's willing to pay today now,

00:12:50 is this a tech bubble? Boom, gonna bust. I don't know, I mean that's a that's a big potential deal that

00:13:00 I'm honestly concerned of. I think about 20 years ago and the tech bubble bursting and people losing their zillions of dollars that's a big deal.

00:13:11 But at the same time

00:13:13 I listen to see NBC and Fox business and all of these different things. I mean they're talking about tech being the next

00:13:21 development of everything is tech and I don't disagree with that set. I don't disagree that that's a play in it. But I mean, the dot com

00:13:32 bubble maybe back. Maybe that I mean,

00:13:36 listen, the technology companies can continue creating continue building and continue selling. But we may have a

00:13:43 real awareness that it's just not worth a hundred billion dollars. With Snowflake and people might say, I'm not willing to pay that anymore

00:13:51 because their revenues are not going to be there. At the end of the day. Cash flow revenues and profit

00:13:56 is what a company is all about, right? And so if you're not looking at those financials

00:14:02 and you're just buying to buy on that I don't have a problem with people taking some risks. But if you bury all of it into the risk you're gonna get burned

00:14:09 you're gonna get burnt

00:14:11 a

00:14:13 that right there is the

00:14:16 gambling of the investment wheel. That is out there for people that

00:14:22 the Robin Hood investors that are out there. Just like

00:14:27 a day at the casino with this. Right they're just like the next thing I'm just going to throw it at it. And what do you know? It went up and

00:14:37 that I think there's a misunderstanding that you describe very well.

00:14:42 And at the end of the day,

00:14:45 what has to happen in order for a company to

00:14:48 survive and the reality is that those stocks go up and they go down. And if you are

00:14:57 buying somewhere in there, you either make or lose money that's just the way it goes. And so you

00:15:04 do not ever just go

00:15:07 to the mad dash

00:15:08 and

00:15:09 call together what little savings you have and think, you're gonna

00:15:13 win the house wins, right? If you keep doing that. And so there's been a lot of stories out there around investors

00:15:20 that they've just they've lost a lot. This year

00:15:24 anyway it's an unfortunate thing. And I'm glad to see that people

00:15:28 are being cautious,

00:15:31 cautiously, optimistic, right, well you're right. And I think

00:15:36 we have had IPOs in the recent past that have not done as

00:15:41 well. But I think a lot of the things that people aren't spending their money as much. I

00:15:46 think Christmas retail sales will be huge. I mean it'd be online it'll be

00:15:50 heavy because people are home and they want things to do so they're throwing stuff under the Christmas tree, so I think that's be an interesting thing. But like Uber

00:15:59 was a really disappointing launch.

00:16:03 Uber had launched today. It would have skyrocketed would double the triple so, I mean it's over back last year, just

00:16:11 didn't hit the didn't. Really cut the mustard, I guess. And then you look at you. Look at Airbnb and said the article goes into the fact that Airbnbs launch. Okay,

00:16:25 put evaluation of it being worth more

00:16:29 than Marriott Hilton and

00:16:32 hit their market cap. All combined I mean, I got to tell you there's no way

00:16:39 that first of all, it's worth as much as Mario it's no way it's worth as much as Maria Hilton and high at all

00:16:45 combined. I mean it's just you think about all the Marie

00:16:48 hotels and how beautiful they are. And all the stuff is going on I mean, I know a lot of people are Airbnbin but that what are the assets really

00:16:57 it's it's just revenue share. Yeah, so there's not a lot of expenses, I mean, the truth is is they don't have a lot of expenses except for

00:17:07 technological infrastructure in some level. Right? Right it's just a platform and revenue

00:17:13 from a cash flow, I M Mary. It actually has to take care of the properties and everything else. I

00:17:17 mean, all that stuff is burdened on the owner. Of the property that they're putting on IV. So they do have an advantage there.

00:17:23 But market cap of the three of them. I think we're a long way off from that,

00:17:30 but do I think it has a major play long term? Yeah, absolutely sure. Well, one

00:17:37 that was money in the news. That was a lot of fun and you actually you touched on something which was the

00:17:44 retail sales. I did see that November was the first month to pull back in the retail sales world it'll be interesting to see what happens in

00:17:51 December and people just go online. I know what we've been trying to focus on a lot here is

00:17:58 supporting the local business is getting out and doing the shopping that we were trying to do with

00:18:06 those businesses that we want to continue to see survive. And hopefully

00:18:11 that's something that everybody else is thinking and taking into consideration as well as much as Amazon is a wonderful convenience

00:18:17 factor there for us.

00:18:19 But it'll be interesting to see what those numbers look like. You

00:18:22 guys. This has been money in the news you're listening to money on tap. You can reach us at 8 5 5 2 to six. A 5 5 1 or info at your money on tap.

00:18:32 Com, we do take short breaks now and then and we're about to roll into one of those. But before we do

00:18:40 you're not going to want to go anywhere because we have got the final five. The final five of our SD planning show for you

00:18:49 we're going to talk through some of these with you and explain where we're coming from from a planning

00:18:56 perspective with the estate planning world don't go anywhere folks will be right back to listen on my on top.

00:19:02 If you're listening today. And your questions are outside the box of estate planning. Or financial

00:19:08 planning or any number of the pieces that we kind of traditionally talk about don't forget the Brasil financial offers

00:19:14 auto home and business

00:19:16 insurance. And we have an entire department that handles all of that for

00:19:20 you. Give us a call at 8 5 5 2 2 6 8 5 5 1 and be happy. To take care of those needs for you or email us at info at your money on tap.

00:19:30 Com more money on tap. In just a moment. Folks

00:19:35 have a lot of fun doing this

00:19:37 show money on tap and Ben and I have been financial planners for years and years. And our goal here with you is to bring you into the room have the

00:19:48 conversations that we have. We think these are critical conversations for you, but we understand this is a limited

00:19:55 and what we'd love to do is to open the doors to you with us at Bracha Financial Group. So you could

00:20:02 experience what it means to have three dimensional planning in your life

00:20:07 let's take a look at all sides of your situation, your scenario. And see how we can put together the best plan

00:20:16 possible taking into account your

00:20:19 risk, how much can you have in the market? How much do we need to have set aside and doing different things for your

00:20:26 life that's what we do as planners how we engage with you. And we welcome you to do that with us. You can reach us at 8 5 5 to 6 5 5 1 or info at your money on tap.

00:20:38 Com now, if you have 250,000 dollars that are investable assets today, our planning is free to you. We want to to have the PlayBook to have a successful experience in

00:20:53 retirement. Give us a call 8 5 5 2 to six. A 5 5 1 or info at your money on tap. Com Ben and I

00:21:01 welcome you to Barasha financial for complete wealth management. Now back to money on tap with Ben and

00:21:18 welcome back you're listening to money on tap, you can reach us at eight to 6 8 5 5 1 or info at your money on task. Com

00:21:31 we are going to review first of all what we talked about last week, because if you

00:21:38 didn't join us last week, you can go online

00:21:42 and grab us in a podcast and

00:21:45 review with us there, if you want to get a little deeper dive on what the first five of his estate planning Tour looked like.

00:21:52 I gotta work or set that sounds like that sounds like we're going on a trip. I like that are a little journey here. Very estate planning relevant there.

00:22:03 I got the grass is greener on the other side for the Nikola battery story. There being the worst company of 20 20 that was a good one. That was good, that was good

00:22:15 Yeah, you, dude. You were knocking it out today, so I'm gonna. Jump into this review so we can get our show

00:22:23 rolling. We have 10 estate planning items and the first five we covered last week. And I think that

00:22:28 if there's something in this that tickles your interest a little bit. I would sit back and take a listen to that

00:22:35 show and there's a lot of good information. So, even if you're not sure I would probably do that.

00:22:40 But we had a little bit about conversation number one was about rethinking your IRAs and understanding how IRAs work in your estate. And

00:22:51 and we push through conversations about how distributions work and a 10 year rule that has now been put in place, which means you have

00:22:58 to distribute your IRAs over 10 years to your beneficiaries that are not your spouse and we also talked a lot about Roth conversions and how that may or may not play

00:23:09 into an option.

00:23:11 So that's something that

00:23:13 we need to look at I need to consider because there have been rule changes around that

00:23:19 number two. So if you want to take that, yeah, sure, yeah, so basically gift gifting today,

00:23:27 several strategies around this. And so we just wanted to highlight that. There is a gift exemption here and

00:23:36 you can basically gift forward. What you were planning to gift after you pass

00:23:42 away and a couple of the exceptions, there was the 15,000 annually per

00:23:48 person. And what was at the 75,000 to the 5 29 kind of a five year front gifting strategy

00:23:57 there. And the 150 married basically to one

00:24:04 beneficiary. That was that clear what I was saying there. I think so I think so I have questions. Give us a call. Give us a call at five to 6 8 5 5

00:24:15 1 give tax exemption. We talked a little bit about that and right now you can do 11.5 8,000,000 each and husband and wife such over 23,000,000 dollars.

00:24:27 That is something that I think we are kind of an agreement there's a lot of people out there that I agree with that. That will be lowered. How much

00:24:34 lower I've heard everything from five to 7,000,000

00:24:38 well, back to the 2.3 or five that used to be.

00:24:43 So that changes a lot depending on how you're doing your planning. And

00:24:47 then number four

00:24:50 was we talked a lot about irrevocable trust. Which are the trust you can

00:24:55 undo? And we spent quite a bit of time working on that.

00:24:59 And that's really, really important. And anything that's part of the show you want to go back to listen to. Because we talked about Slat trust

00:25:07 sat and we talked about protecting assets from

00:25:11 creditors, which is always a big deal. And that includes

00:25:14 if you're doing Medicaid planning looking at your vocal trust and how that may or may not be

00:25:19 a spot for you, we would highly encourage you to speak with an attorney about that as Seth and I are not

00:25:25 attorneys. But that is definitely a huge piece of the practice that we work with attorneys on

00:25:32 number five, yeah, the unused deceased spouse exemption carry forward.

00:25:40 That

00:25:43 was basically the bypass.

00:25:46 The need for a portable exemption is what we brought that back into and you might be

00:25:52 better off preserving assets for errors with a bypass trust similar to the slot. Except it's

00:25:58 funded at the spaces first step. And the second spouse retains limited access to the funds inside the

00:26:04 trust with expenses for health, education, maintenance and support. Generally as approved

00:26:11 that was that

00:26:12 very good, very good. So let's knock out number six here. So

00:26:20 we talked about a lot of trust and we're going to go into what we call an asset protection trust and this

00:26:26 is a different kind of trust

00:26:30 it's new

00:26:31 it's irrevocable it's one where you're going to put your assets into the trust

00:26:37 primarily safeguard from creditors. Both now and in the future. Now, New Hampshire is a very well known asset protection trust state

00:26:46 it's. Actually, one of the reasons why we have so many attorneys in the state and all of the pieces that it

00:26:52 does what's interesting about an asset protection trust is that you can put your assets in there and have someone else

00:26:59 manage those assets for you. Pay your bills, etc, etc. And as long as you open this trust and there's all sorts

00:27:08 of issues around this. But as long as you open this trust in good faith and you don't expect that someone's coming after you for something. Or you haven't done

00:27:15 anything prior that you would have

00:27:18 known. That would have caused problems. I mean, you can put your money in assets in there and they can't literally the next day, sue, you for

00:27:24 anything. If you truly went into that in all good

00:27:27 faith, it does have a five year waiting period as well, generally, so if you didn't know you did something wrong or you didn't know you were going to get

00:27:36 sued you'd have to get past the five year period on that asset protection trust and those are things that we have a number of attorneys who work in this area that

00:27:45 that you could talk to. If you want to get deeper dive in that.

00:27:49 So if you are fortunate enough to live in a state where

00:27:55 these trusts are basically funded and created and

00:27:59 funded that's great. But you don't have to that's one of the things that people just need to understand around trust as you can live anywhere and have a trust created

00:28:09 any state by

00:28:11 attorney, that does that. So you're not limited by where you live. But one of the things that you can do with the irrevocable self subtle

00:28:20 trust. You can be the beneficiary of that trust as well. So it's an interesting

00:28:26 it's a really interesting dynamic that you kind of are giving away

00:28:32 to this irrevocable trust

00:28:35 something that you once had more fluid control over with some constraints.

00:28:41 But the method works

00:28:45 that's one of the ways to protect the

00:28:47 assets. This is basically as close as you get to put money in the Cayman Islands,

00:28:53 this is as close as you can get without going there. So it's a pretty aggressive

00:29:00 scenario. A lot of people put

00:29:01 paid off assets. Like if you paid your house off, you might slide it over there. You basically would make contribution. You can still

00:29:10 pay various expenses and stuff. And I usually go through the trust. But you know, again, talk to you.

00:29:16 Attorneys are this is a very intricate process. And actually in honestly, a very popular that's used all over the place. So

00:29:25 we're on to the revocable trust. Because we've certainly spend a fair amount of time talking about the irrevocable trust, why wouldn't we talk about the revocable

00:29:35 trust. And it is kind of an

00:29:40 interesting note that there's more of the revocable trusts that are sold. Then

00:29:48 bought and some people might even think of that kind of like an annuity.

00:29:53 They have been a blanket strategy for avoiding probate and cutting taxes.

00:29:59 But the revocable piece really renders them ineligible for a lot of the state tax strategies that we've been talking about. But it

00:30:12 can't accomplish the goal first and foremost of bypassing

00:30:18 probate and depending on what state you're in probate looks very different from state to state.

00:30:26 It can be one of the simple ways to just especially with Covin

00:30:31 people not getting appointed to the

00:30:33 estates through the

00:30:34 process or getting powers of attorney. Just the courts have been backed up. This has been one of those

00:30:40 places where the attorneys that we've been talking to have been using them to just really help families manage the

00:30:48 assets. Yeah,

00:30:52 unless the biggest issue here is just avoiding probate I mean that's the number one reason why people do revocable trust. The second piece of this is that it

00:31:03 does give you the ability to say

00:31:06 Johnny and, Susie, you get at this. And this is how it works. And I'm going to spread this out over your lifetime.

00:31:11 Or I mean, you create all sorts of things but you can also do that in a will. And you can actually the will. You can actually invoke that a trust happens

00:31:20 on your death. Now, once you do die, that revocable trust does turn to become

00:31:27 irrevocable it can't be

00:31:28 changed. So it's only revocable and changeable. While you're alive and that's important to understand, because if you do put something in place and all of a sudden

00:31:37 you're gone. And then you didn't realize that hey, listen, I didn't understand that this is not going to be changeable

00:31:43 and Johnny's got to take this money out over the next X number of years of his life

00:31:48 and there's only a thousand dollars in the account that's gonna be a burden. Something because you're going to have

00:31:55 all sorts of trust, filing stuff and so forth. So you

00:31:59 can get yourself and your family into a pickle, too. So you need to really get some good legal advice on how that revocable becomes your vocal. Because I've seen

00:32:10 people do things in the best intentions. And then they talk to their attorney up I've got it all set up. This is what we're doing. And all of a sudden at the end of the

00:32:19 day they got to figure out how to deal with that either go to the

00:32:23 go to a judge and say, hey, listen, this is well intended, but there's no money in this thing, very little.

00:32:32 No it's a financial burden to keep it open. This work that they have to do to deal with that stuff and that's a burden in its own right to

00:32:39 so you don't want to leave people with a trust to have to file taxes on every year

00:32:45 trust have really bad tax rates,

00:32:49 really bad tax rates.

00:32:51 They do I like this idea here too

00:32:57 around. How do they help

00:33:00 that manage the assets if there's health issues because it's a lot

00:33:05 easier for you to have a success or trust take charge of the assets than it is to have an agent under power of attorney and a lot can save a lot

00:33:14 a money that way as well. But having a separate tax identification number can help avoid scams on

00:33:23 seniors and that is one of the big things that we just have coming through our office

00:33:29 I'm trying to think of how many phone calls have I have I just not taken because I immediately recognize that it's some kind of a scam out there that people are

00:33:39 getting quite good at and talking with our clients. On a regular basis just to make sure that they are aware of what some of these scams

00:33:49 are and not answering the phone or not. Giving out information

00:33:53 in anyways, yeah, protecting protecting our loved ones that's what this is all about,

00:33:58 you know, the camping is crazy. I honestly had somebody who was scammed twice in a row

00:34:04 poor guy. I

00:34:06 I don't know. I don't know how he got hacked twice, but they got literally within a month. They ended up getting hit twice

00:34:16 it's out there it's painful and it's a real issue. So I always tell people if you get

00:34:23 something at all that you think maybe might be real, but you have a question, Mark. It all in your mind.

00:34:31 Give us a call that's what? I tell my clients all the time. Like, just give me a call. It's not worth clicking on it

00:34:36 because someone says you owe me money and I am and I'm going to sue you because you didn't pay me

00:34:42 it's like okay, well, let them see you, okay?

00:34:46 Because if you owe them the money, we would just get a paid and they would walk away. The lawsuit would be over and you wouldn't even need an

00:34:53 attorney there's no reason for you to worry about those emails. And

00:34:58 it is like, how do I miss something? Something happened in that natural inclination is a good person to want to act on that

00:35:07 don't don't act on it. Make him send a sheriff to your door with a

00:35:11 subpoena okay, saying you owe me money. That that's much more worth it. And a lot less costly, actually for you, then

00:35:20 dealing with all the aftermath of it. So, if you're listening today someone's demanding you pay them this out of the other thing. Make them come, get you folks.

00:35:31 That was beautiful, I love it. You

00:35:34 don't have to push the button. You don't have to do anything today, but it would be

00:35:38 wonderful. If you just pick up the phone and give us quality five to 6 5 1 or info at your money on tap. Com

00:35:45 we want to make sure that you're taking care of and that's your

00:35:48 you're protected in those ways we're gonna take a quick break

00:35:53 we're going to come back. And we have three

00:35:56 more of our estate

00:35:58 planning keys on the tour of estate planning. With us here in money on depth, you can reach a five to 6 8 5 5 1 or info at your money on tap. Com we'll be right back

00:36:12 for a number of our listeners. They have a lot of questions and you might be one of them today we're just offering

00:36:18 what we call Zuma. ARS webinars over zoom meeting rooms where we

00:36:23 have top experts, social security, estate planning and financial planning experts for you to speak with. Do a private

00:36:33 consultation that way

00:36:34 today we're also having webinar based seminars where we're going to have multiple groups where you can be part of that and enjoy that as

00:36:40 well. Coming up here in the new year, give us a call at 8 5 5 to 6 8 5 5 1 or email us at info at your money on tap. Com to schedule your

00:36:53 seminar more money on tap in just a moment.

00:36:56 Then how often do we have? Somebody come in to the office and they don't have a financial plan and how critical is it for us to put the pieces together

00:37:06 and make sure that their future their

00:37:10 retirement is a successful experience. We talk about it all the time here are money on tap. If that's

00:37:15 you give us a call at 8 5 5 2 to 6 8 5 5 1 or info at your money on tap. Com whether you have a hundred thousand 500,000 5,000,000

00:37:26 look, folks, we have the right planner for you whether it's been or myself South Crossman we're here for you to get the plan together. And make sure that that next step

00:37:38 right now back to money on tap with Ben and sat.

00:37:45 Welcome back you're listening to money on tap, you can reach a diet 6 8 5 5 1 or info at your money on tap. Com,

00:37:54 we have been taking a tour of estate

00:37:57 planning. These are the things that we've felt are really important for you to be considering. Then thinking about so many different ways to

00:38:08 have your wishes taken care of avoid taxes

00:38:13 avoid, really a lot of different techniques to take control of the assets and make sure that

00:38:20 a lot of the time we're just talking about making sure the taxes are not

00:38:25 coming in and creditors aren't coming in and taking over your assets that you've worked so hard for. And the next the next piece

00:38:35 that

00:38:36 probably is the least fun of any of them for us to talk

00:38:41 about. But so critical for especially if we're talking about someone dying here, how much worse could I get? Oh, I

00:38:50 forget. I forget that happens and we do talk about that. This is a

00:38:57 Medicaid trust.

00:38:59 A special needs trust is what we've got a long term care event happening and draining the assets.

00:39:08 The other survivor

00:39:11 and basically impoverishing a family through the process of long term care and how to plan

00:39:19 through an event. This is this is what you want to take. Pay attention to folks. Yeah, you know,

00:39:25 this is a big conversation in a lot of ways and involves a lot of detail way outside of just the one point of the 10 that this

00:39:34 is. And I want to say that because I think people need to know that if you want to do Medicaid

00:39:39 planning, it is a very detailed, very strategic and very intentional thing to do

00:39:46 but creating creating trust creating irrevocable trust and special needs trust. And all of that or important plays for people who don't have enough money to self insure

00:39:59 they don't have enough money to buy long term character,

00:40:05 but they have a real intention to try to leave whatever they can to their family or their children. Or

00:40:11 a child who really needs it. And one of the things

00:40:15 that I've been involved with was doing a Medicaid trust. Because the family didn't have very much

00:40:22 and they really had one child who was special needs as

00:40:26 well that they wanted to make sure that there was something in that trust for when they passed on that is a big deal. And that is a big concern

00:40:34 for many more families that we articulate in our communities. I mean there's a lot of people who have

00:40:41 children or grandchildren who have special needs? And some of them may not be

00:40:45 really that apparent set. I mean, I think about people

00:40:48 who have children you wouldn't even know how special needs but they do and they have trouble maintaining a job or whatever because of various

00:40:56 scenarios or even a financial position. That would help them meet there financial need. Should that family ever pass and that's a big

00:41:05 deal. So there's kind of a two prong approach. You get Medicaid planning you've got special needs planning. But you also might have special needs planning

00:41:14 inside your spouse. Your spouse might have a special

00:41:17 need and you need to make sure that there's enough money for them to survive after you pass away. If something happens to you first.

00:41:25 Man these are some big questions and I think this is an area that requires a whole lot of delicacy both emotionally

00:41:35 in time. And with an attorney to work through this in a financial planner that will help

00:41:42 mitigate and manage the financial assets in a way that can articulate that. Because there's some assets. You can't put into a trust. And

00:41:50 that causes a problem without creating maybe even taxes and that specifically speaking is IRAs that's a hard thing to deal with.

00:42:00 But Medicaid planning and building a trust is really just the five year look back, I mean it's building in your vocal trust that you can't

00:42:07 change and surviving for five years.

00:42:11 In a way that you don't have to ask the state for funds

00:42:16 and then after five years you could apply in whatever asset you have depending on the state rules there's a certain amount

00:42:22 of money that the husband can have there's a certain amount of money that

00:42:26 the wife can have and depending on who's ill that's a

00:42:29 different number. So, like, for instance, in some states, it might be a hundred thousand that the healthy spouse can have in only two or 3 or four or

00:42:35 5,000 dollars. Is that the unhealthy spouse can have and then sometimes

00:42:41 there's a life estate on living in the primary residence for one of the

00:42:45 spouses. Some states will put a lien. Some states won't put a lean on that house. They usually allow you to keep one vehicle and

00:42:53 they will evaluate how much money is coming in from Social

00:42:56 Security in the various pensions and whatever you have and they'll tell you how much you get to keep as a healthy spouse to pay your bills.

00:43:04 Those are some very restrictive scenarios

00:43:07 and you

00:43:08 create a Medicaid trust to get as much

00:43:11 much assets in there and protect as much as you can. And know what the other reciprocating laws are that you can actually survive a lot of

00:43:19 stuff next. This is actually one of my favorites

00:43:23 let's clean it up, folks. Now, once you've gotten your planning right? And everything's good and

00:43:31 that event happens. I think this is where the pieces is like how's that next step happen. I did this Medicaid trust. I survived the five years me or my wife,

00:43:40 my husband or whatever the scenario is one of us gets sick.

00:43:45 Then what you do is you go through the Medicaid process. And the Medicaid process is contacting the

00:43:50 state getting the application for

00:43:52 Medicaid. Now they're going to tell you these are the exact numbers. This is what you can have

00:43:57 the rules and the laws may have changed by the date and time in which you're making the application? So let's say at the time you were able to have

00:44:06 10,000 dollars

00:44:07 in the bank or your IRA is the healthy spouse. And now they've

00:44:11 lowered it to a hundred thousand. Well they're going to tell you you're going to need to spend that 10,000 dollars and

00:44:17 you're going

00:44:19 to spend that down and that's going to be part of your application process and you're going to have to keep a record of how you spent that

00:44:24 money they're going to look at bank statements they're going to go back into the past. I got to look at the different

00:44:28 pieces of how you've spent your money and they're going to go back as long as five years. And they won't be able to

00:44:34 see that you move that money to a Medicaid trust, but you're going to have to do that I

00:44:39 process now you can hire an attorney to do that and I do highly recommend

00:44:43 that and I would probably recommend that you hire the attorney. You did the Medicaid

00:44:47 trust through because they they're going to stand by their planning they're going to fill it out the way they planned everything to do

00:44:54 and that's the piece that you're really going to want to make sure is done

00:44:59 seamlessly that you bring it all together that way. I would say that just because you feel like you've been impoverished

00:45:05 don't be too cheap here. This is where

00:45:08 you've done all this

00:45:10 planning? Now,

00:45:10 this is the stage you're going to perform on. And you want to make sure the attorney is doing this work and that's what I highly encourage it? Because some people

00:45:17 say, well, I don't have any money theoretically, so I'm good. I'm just going to fill this stuff out. It's only a few pages of information, etc, etc, and it's like,

00:45:25 no don't make any mistakes

00:45:27 don't screw something up here and it's hard to. But it's worth getting it done, right, and there might be things that they're doing planning wise.

00:45:35 Some have used annuities or different types of investment vehicles to hide assets to so you want to make sure

00:45:41 that you're not filling out something wrong and creating problems for refiling.

00:45:46 So I think that's where I leave. All of that at St. That was really critical information, Ben. And I appreciate you really taking the time to go through that

00:45:54 process and understand it as well as you do.

00:45:59 If you have a question about any of that. Give us a call at 8 5 5 2 2 6 8 5 5 1 or info at your money on tap.

00:46:11 Com and get your questions answered. Because there's a lot more to

00:46:18 everything that we're talking about today and it's important to have the correct information for you. And that changes from person to person. So this is a great

00:46:31 introduction let's have a bigger conversation about that. And we that's what we're here for you can reach us at 5 2 to 6 8 5 5 1 or info at your money on tap.

00:46:42 Com this next one. This is one that I love because I just get so many stories around this and it's the consolidation of your assets. Okay

00:46:52 let's just clean it up, folks. You know we've got the brokerage account over here. That you had with fidelity you've got your

00:47:02 stock account over there because you had a broker in the

00:47:06 19 that you bought some

00:47:09 stock from. And, you know, what you've just got these things all over the place? And I love seeing the

00:47:17 the paper bag. Come in with just statements from everywhere. And so many times when we're sitting down and we're just cleaning things up and

00:47:28 consolidating there's going to be a lot of benefits to this you're going to be able to get organized you're going to list your assets

00:47:35 out we're going to pull everything together and we're gonna get the big

00:47:39 picture and where all these pieces fit together. Now, one of the other benefits of this is too. Is

00:47:45 that when you consolidate because the relationship grows because there's everything in one

00:47:53 place. You get discounts folks

00:47:56 that's the way it works is the bill gets less and less on the cost of the management of those pieces because the size of the relationship at one location is

00:48:08 it's larger. Same thing happens whenever you are at the bank. Right

00:48:13 you get a better interest rate for the more money you

00:48:16 have in that savings account. Usually anyways that's one of the benefits here too. And we've got so many really unique and nice tools here with us

00:48:27 on our clients.

00:48:29 Supported through this process. To be able to have a digital

00:48:33 file on hand at any time for your advance

00:48:38 directives. Any of any of these estate plans and wills that you

00:48:43 have there's the safe deposit box that maybe there's a couple of paper copies of some stock that you were

00:48:54 we've seen it

00:48:56 all for us. The paper stock certificate I want to jump off of.

00:49:01 I have people who man. If you have paper stock certificates, get them in a regular brokerage

00:49:07 account. Get him out of your name and what we call street form in a brokerage account. Because if you so with paper stock

00:49:14 certificates, I got to tell you I did. I did a state case

00:49:18 10 15 years

00:49:21 ago. I mean, this person. I mean, it was like I had almost three inches thick of

00:49:28 paperwork for moving stock certificates. And if we're talking millions of dollars that it turned out to be. But the person had refused.

00:49:35 The client had to go through. Honestly, a horrible experience of getting

00:49:40 appointed as trustee that documents had to be within a certain days old. It couldn't be more than 20 days old appointed for the

00:49:47 court. It was we had a FedEx is stuff all over the place. It was a nightmare. And that poor guy, I felt I felt bad for him. I mean, yeah, he was inheriting a lot money,

00:49:56 but it was so stress left or losing his mother. That was it was something he just didn't want to deal with it. And I'll tell you don't be that scenario,

00:50:04 please? Yeah, no we're going to try to avoid that. So when we get organized, one of the things that we're going to have is we're going to have a digital copy of the assets.

00:50:15 Okay? And you're gonna get this on a computer and you're going to back it up. OK, so that's a redundancy is what we call that

00:50:26 it's taking that next step because we don't

00:50:30 necessarily trust that the computer is going to last. I don't know till tomorrow. It seems like they did

00:50:37 don't so if you can actually get an external hard drive and back all of that information

00:50:42 up and that's what you want to go ahead and put into that safe deposit box. Not the paper copy of the stocks.

00:50:50 With our online system, we have

00:50:54 an

00:50:55 encrypted vault. We call it where you put your information and we have that for our clients that they can use as well and that's also very helpful for that.

00:51:03 Well let's wrap this thing up with number 10 and this is probably the easiest

00:51:07 I always recommend set people hire professionals to service of trustee. If they can afford

00:51:13 it

00:51:15 it's just a huge, it just saves so much time and energy from the family it's just a good choice.

00:51:23 Yeah, I

00:51:24 kind of cringe when people say that they haven't and they could

00:51:30 it's an emotional it just kills the emotional scenarios that are involved in a state issue it's an amazing

00:51:36 scenario. I actually had a call today. A client had asked me about being an

00:51:41 for their family because he was struggling. Choosing a child I said. Well, I really am honored by your

00:51:47 trust in me. But unfortunately, legally, I can't serve as that. And

00:51:52 he was just like I don't know what to do. I've got kids and I don't know which one to do my best recommendation and it wasn't a

00:51:59 scenario. We talked about attorney and this that and the other thing.

00:52:04 But it was the size enough that would justify it what he was trying to accomplish and what he's doing

00:52:11 and my advice to him and I'm going to give this advice out there was

00:52:15 I don't believe you choose the oldest. I don't believe you choose the youngest. No, I don't believe you choose the person with the best financial smart or the person

00:52:21 who is the best book keeper or

00:52:25 intellectual. I truly believe you choose the person with the best heart

00:52:29 and that's what I said to him I said I would go with a person that has the biggest

00:52:34 heart of all your family who doesn't have the concerns necessarily one way or another? And that will

00:52:40 carry out your wishes. As best you possibly can. And even if you have an issue with them today or they're not the person you're talking to. But if you know that

00:52:49 someone told me one time when the hearts right, it

00:52:52 works. People make mistakes all the time. But when the heart's really right there, you can coach and you can teach and you can work through that stuff

00:53:01 if the heart's not right, it doesn't matter how much coaching your teaching you. You do it doesn't work. And so that's my advice to people who if you're looking at

00:53:10 a family member that because if the heart right is going to be less conflict. If the hearts right the money in the assets are going to move

00:53:17 correctly. If the heart's right, it will get done the way you wanted it to. Yeah, I think it's

00:53:21 also important to have those conversations ahead of time. So people understand well,

00:53:28 your wishes and why

00:53:31 and the more the more clear. And the more clarity there is the better things work that I think that's just a fact of life, no matter

00:53:43 what challenges we face. So you guys.

00:53:47 And do you have anything else? Is that it no that's it. So this is a good show. I hope everyone got as much out of it as even refreshing. My

00:53:56 learning on a few of these things I had to update on, which is

00:54:00 great. Hey, I always remembered reminded that we had a couple of shows within 20

00:54:06 we've had some of the tunes

00:54:08 jump on air with us and they do great work and we also appreciate them for

00:54:13 their input on the show here with us. We appreciate you guys. So much for jumping in here with us and tackle. Tough subjects like

00:54:21 this, you can reach us at 8 5 5 2 2 6 8 5 5 1 or info at your money on tap. Com

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00:54:38 investing and Twitter at

00:54:41 CFG underscore

00:54:43 LLC. We appreciate you joining us here

00:54:45 today and we hope you make it a great day and great life. Thanks for joining us with money on

00:54:51 top. The views expressed are not necessarily the opinion of this radio station and should not be construed directly or

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00:55:56 well,

00:55:58 bye.

00:00:00 Welcome to money on tap

00:00:15 money on tap your personal finance

00:00:17 headquarters, where we bring out the professionals experience. Some fine in what we call three dimensional investing utilizing insurance brokerage and Seabased planning

00:00:26 that's what we do on this show. We look at all sides of the issues. We bring a fully independent planning perspective to the table

00:00:36 Welcome back, you are listening to money on tap. My name's Seth Crossman. I be

00:00:41 Bracha you can reach us 8 5 5 to 6 5 5 1 or info at your money on

00:00:49 tap. Com and we are getting close to a wrap on 20 20

00:00:58 and it has been

00:01:00 what a year I got to tell you that if I had 20 20 on this year, I just would have taken a coma pills.

00:01:10 I don't know how many people have had that year where they've just taken that extra long winter's nap and kind of sailed it right on through and the

00:01:20 one or wish they could have. Is that what you're referring too

00:01:24 bad I'm just saying that this is nothing short of horrendous. So my 20 20 on this year is don't do it again. I am ended that

00:01:34 me to completely

00:01:37 appreciate where you're coming from and

00:01:39 it's a joy to be with you today, though. And it's a pleasure to be it's. A joy to be with you today, so you too. And that's what you mean that wasn't directed at me?

00:01:48 I don't

00:01:49 appreciate the fact that you weren't enjoying being with me and I actually reiterated that I thought I was responding to your statement.

00:01:55 I'm kind of heart here I'm speechless and

00:01:59 I give you. I give you the show of a lifetime today, so so

00:02:06 about I'm about to push another. This is going into my 20 20 calculator right now. And I just

00:02:14 sat back that we get back, you know, you probably had some great plans out there for 20 20

00:02:22 and here's. One of the things that a lessons that we learn is that plans

00:02:28 change they are moving targets and they are a lot of fun to put together. But

00:02:35 you just can't depend on those things right. Who knows that better than a couple planners sitting here on this radio here and

00:02:42 knocking out all the different variables that you have to do in life. I mean, when it comes to 20 20 you think about. I remember the new year

00:02:51 thinking to myself, 20 time is going to be a great year. A great number great year. I just remember, having all sorts of positive thoughts about 20 20

00:03:01 I don't have those thoughts

00:03:03 anymore. Those are all wiped away quickly sometime around April. Preceded by all the following months afterwards, and now I have a little PTSD when I think a 20 20

00:03:16 you know, I'm kind of hoping that 20 21 might be

00:03:19 better. But it's not gonna be hard. Like, I don't have any big

00:03:22 aspirations. But I pretty much figure. We should be able to be better than what 20 20 was which is sad, but as

00:03:29 planners, we have to be prepared for variables like pandemics.

00:03:33 And I was going to say I actually had a direction of where I was going to go with that. But that was I appreciate

00:03:39 what you were saying there, Ben and I'm with you. So the plans change, but the planning work is indispensable

00:03:47 to come back to. Because if you had a plan coming into 20 20

00:03:51 if you done ahead of time,

00:03:54 even though you probably didn't have pandemic on your list of things to account for the work that you did ahead of time. Prepared you to

00:04:06 have a course correction. If you needed it and be able to make that first of all, if you had pandemic on your list or any money going into the

00:04:14 air. You might, though. You would have been incorrect might need to look at the optimistic pill.

00:04:21 Yeah, very good, very good. You reminded me of something that was

00:04:27 Memes of 20 20 and I'm sure everybody's got one out there, I think my favorite one was 20 20 where we learned that

00:04:36 the baby Shark

00:04:37 song that at least our kids. I don't know if you have young kids or not, but we've got little ones. And

00:04:42 that was one of their favorite songs coming into 20 20 was this baby Shark went on Alexa regularly and

00:04:51 I opened up a open up a portal to a parallel universe of disaster

00:04:58 that we haven't heard Baby Shark for a long time. And thank you Jesus for that

00:05:06 don't do it, folks that's what I got to say. We do have a fun show.

00:05:13 No

00:05:15 it's not going to be what it's not going to be the show on the

00:05:18 market it's not going to be the tax show we've already done those. We could do another market. So we've got some fun things to bring in about

00:05:25 that. But this is going to be the show for you.

00:05:30 That covers estate planning. This is some stuff like

00:05:35 that. Like, do we just do clever to be clever now. But we do make

00:05:42 really appropriate moves when it comes to a state planning and there's some different things that you can be thinking about through your planning in your estate

00:05:50 planning to take into consideration. And what are some of the top ones that bed and I have put together here for you

00:05:56 today. It likely is going to be a couple of shows because it is a deeper dive.

00:06:03 This Twopart series is going to be. I think a solid base to ask the right questions I'm actually I'm actually happy we're doing this. I think it's an appropriate time.

00:06:11 Because with the end of 20 20 right in your face, you might need to make some estate planning moves and some of these might trigger some ideas and thoughts.

00:06:19 And I think we were going to try to do it in one show, it just way too much information. And honestly, we even cut some stuff out. Just was too much, but, yeah, we

00:06:30 have 10 estate planning opportunities for you today? Five of which we're going to go through?

00:06:35 Up next, though, before we jump into the estate planning stuff, we have money in the news

00:06:49 first off folks. The Christmas star will be the closest visible

00:06:56 conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in

00:06:59 800 years. Now that doesn't sound a whole lot like money in the news for us but we couldn't we couldn't miss this

00:07:07 event and it is the season, right? We used to throw it out there I

00:07:11 lost the best. This one here, folks. This is no money to do is but Seth wanted to do it. So I gave I gave. So what is it it's winter as December 20 first and 20 20

00:07:23 and it's. Actually a couple of days

00:07:25 that we're going to have this conjunction of 20 and it will be the two giants of Jupiter and Saturn they're going to converge as far as what we can see

00:07:39 it's known by some astronomers as the Christmas Star. Because this belief that the biblical tale of the star of

00:07:46 Bethlehem could have been a planetary conjunction.

00:07:50 Although 2,000 years ago in Venus and

00:07:52 Jupiter were the closest and not Jupiter and Saturn, as is the case of the Christmas star of

00:07:59 20 so to break it down, this could not have been the Christmas Star. But they could

00:08:05 not have, but we're going to call it that this year because it's 20 20 and guess what? Unless you're going to stick around for another 800

00:08:12 years you might want to take a look if you're looking for your

00:08:16 astrological information. Contact set at 8 5 5 2 2 6 8 5 5 1 we're gonna leave it at that.

00:08:22 Yeah, because this is gonna be about as the extent of my knowledge or information moving forward. Other than you know, I'll point you in the direction,

00:08:29 so this is a good article. I mean, it is interesting it's supposed to be brighter during this time of year because of this. So

00:08:35 that's positive I guess, but they said this will be the first time in what 800 years? A planetary system will be

00:08:44 visible by the naked eye which is interesting. I mean that is pretty cool, so we'll see we'll see what happens probably will probably be overcast

00:08:53 and that's my 20 20 thinking. Sorry, go ahead. So what I didn't do is I didn't talk to you about the comet this last summer.

00:09:01 So but you wanted to? And I remember you wanted to. So I wanted to go check it out. And I never got there and is likely the case with this because

00:09:11 it's a little bit of a glimpse you got to look in the western sky and in the Portland Oregon

00:09:16 area that Western sky might be a little bit of cloud cover during those days that be

00:09:21 18 through the 20 first, ish and it's like, right after dusk, I think is when you got that window. So a door door in the news. If you didn't know

00:09:34 this is a Wall Street Journal article. That is about how door pulled ahead in the food delivery war. And I didn't know there was a

00:09:44 war. I didn't either I thought we pulled all our troops out.

00:09:49 Yeah, yeah, no. Thank you all for doing that, though. By the way Trump's been pulling out troops everywhere. Did you see that I was pretty

00:09:55 impressed, I think so,

00:09:56 I don't know it was like four different places. He was getting troops out.

00:09:59 So but I didn't know about this war keep going, oh, oh, gosh, drink a coffee. I thought you were gonna take the mic for more than more than that. Second there

00:10:07 delivery, cover company or

00:10:10 is that to go

00:10:13 public valued it more than 30,000,000,000 and here's. A look into the San Francisco based startup leapfrog the rivals to become the dominant

00:10:21 player in a competitive market and I did not even know that there was so many people in this market I've used GrubHub hub in the past and sold it

00:10:32 anyways. DoorDash is the one that's moving in here, folks. And it was an interesting look

00:10:39 into what the numbers show as far as how they really have taken over this market and

00:10:44 primarily well. Everybody else was focused on the cities. They said hey we're going to go ahead and get into the

00:10:49 suburbs. This is a good move, I mean, this is a very strategic, very

00:10:55 placed move. That really sent

00:10:58 them skyrocketing in the space. I mean, they went from a third to 50% of the delivery system, which is phenomenal that's just an amazing. An amazing overcome right there.

00:11:10 Yeah, yes, it is. I have you heard. Have you heard of Postmates is that something you're familiar with because that was one of their

00:11:16 competition there's Uber Eats Grub. Hubs Postmates and DoorDash is the the main competitors. I have not heard of Postmates that I'm aware of it looks like

00:11:27 it's certainly more popular in the

00:11:30 California Los Angeles market. I guess I'm not really or Miami. Maybe not really a part of those. But good for them. Yeah, this is interesting. And I

00:11:39 know it's going public here.

00:11:42 And by the time

00:11:43 some people actually hear this, I will have gone public. But

00:11:47 I don't know. I don't know if I'm a buyer. I know you and I were chatting about this. I don't know if I'm a buyer, I guess I'd have to see how the stock

00:11:53 moves. You know, when Facebook went public, I think when public around 50 or 60 dollars a share and it rose all the way up to, like, 70 or 80

00:11:59 I thought it was 30 and it bounced down to like 18 I think it sounds below anything because I bought it it. And I said, yeah, you know 18 that's cheap I'll buy it

00:12:11 I'm just wondering that's a door a scenario that

00:12:14 it's very common Yeah, a lot of these. Now, this is a billion dollar IPO which qualifies it as a unicorn that's the term out there for these IPOs. And

00:12:26 gosh, it was 20 19 cheese. That was a great year. 20 remember 20 19

00:12:32 been I? I didn't think it was a great year. But I think

00:12:36 now right now, I want 20 19 old days of 20

00:12:42 19 Yeah, there was just a whole bunch of IPOs. And there was a fair amount of him in 20 20 but it did slow down a bit. But this

00:12:52 is a big one. I'm trying to remember what some of the bigger ones out there were for

00:12:57 Twentynineteen off the top of my head. Anyway, some of the statistics out there were that the 20 18 IPOs performed far worse

00:13:05 18 it was just kind of like that first year getting off the blocks and so many of them just aren't even profitable, which is the case

00:13:11 here with DoorDash as well. So the cautionary tale here is that they really haven't even posted a full year of

00:13:18 profit. But the trend was that the first year out of the gate. They really don't do that well, but that second was one that they were

00:13:27 showing better gains as far as the market returns. Maybe not necessarily profitability. I don't know see I'm looking at this say

00:13:34 that people have been locked up,

00:13:36 kept

00:13:37 up scared to go out told not to go out for so long that I think DoorDash is going public perfectly at the right time for them. But

00:13:44 I think as soon as things kind of really left, I think. Are gonna be done ordering out and brought to their house. I mean,

00:13:53 my family wants to get out of the house. So I don't know that I

00:13:59 literally think they're going public at the premiere time and they're going to get top value for it. And I think

00:14:05 that's a concern for me, not being not being

00:14:08 profitable. Yet I'm always skeptical and companies. That aren't

00:14:12 profitable, I like profitable companies that's kind of where I'm at. So you Warren

00:14:17 Buffett, a lot of other people out there included. So possibly just an interesting story it really is a pandemic story and possibly a short

00:14:26 term option for the traders out there that are looking for what's the ticket. And I do like the strategy of just kind of keeping an eyeball on it.

00:14:34 Possibly bounce the bottom and

00:14:37 quick trade in and out. Yeah, I agree. Next up, folks, we have Elon Musk, Elon Musk he's not going to be speaking live here today but he is moving to

00:14:49 Texas. I think he's just done with Silicon Valley. I mean, they were going

00:14:54 to. I mean, he had to reopen his plant and they threatened to arrest him and he got his legal team all up,

00:15:03 up in their stuff and said, we're not

00:15:05 and come and get me if you need to. And they decided to back down. But I think, he's just sick of all of the craziness that Governor news com and I do call him new.

00:15:17 Com has done because I think he is just on a

00:15:19 horrendously bad job with California and he should be ashamed and embarrassed, honestly, and I feel bad for all the people in

00:15:27 California it's horrible. They got lawsuits everywhere in that state

00:15:30 over trying to deal with things but people are leaving left and right and it's becoming something of

00:15:36 a little bit of it's cool to move out of California and that's bad for them he was quoted. The governor was quoted saying that he really wanted

00:15:45 Tesla and though there was a place for them here and so forth. But the plant in Texas is going to be opening up this coming year

00:15:53 and Elon Musk seems quite happy with that. In a matter of fact Palantir Technologies actually at a company I

00:16:02 actually purchased. I just happen to be in the headlights too. They had moved. They were in the Bay area in

00:16:09 California, but they just moved to Denver, Colorado this

00:16:12 year. So it's becoming kind of popular to get out of

00:16:15 California. And the thing is is California is like, I mean, they are financially falling apart, they have the highest personal state income tax

00:16:26 in the country of

00:16:28 13.3% for people who make over a million bucks. So if you're making over a million dollars, you pay well over 50% in

00:16:34 taxes. I mean they're getting hit on every side and it's really pretty crazy. But to lose Elon Musk is a big hit for California in general

00:16:42 because they're bigger their market caps now bigger than

00:16:45 GM and Ford. And so that's a big hit to a state like that yeah, oh, was it? Also, a Packard they've moved their operations out of Silicon

00:16:55 Valley. A couple other prominent conservative venture capital is Peter teal. Maybe you've heard of or Keith rabbi have cited that basically Silicon Valley's liberal

00:17:04 politics as a reason for them to relocate. We should. We should rename it silly Valley because it's ridiculous silly Valley,

00:17:14 I don't know that

00:17:16 Los Angeles is necessarily conservative. If you're in politics, not

00:17:23 just this stuff is ridiculous. I mean, the stuff going on. There is just it's a nightmare. I mean, they

00:17:30 think, I mean, honestly, to get a little political or a lot political. I mean, they think they're doing a great job. In California, you got hair as you

00:17:37 Pelosi, you got news. Com and the

00:17:40 loss nephew, by the way, if you didn't know that they think they're doing a great job and they want to roll that out

00:17:44 nationwide and that's a scary scary thought because they really have no

00:17:48 clue. And honestly, if they're running it they're going to shut us all down. Just like they're doing in California we'll be fighting everything in court for

00:17:54 every Nick and cranny of rights that we have. I mean it's scary. I mean, even in the conservative States, I mean, the rights left and right. I mean,

00:18:05 most churches are closed it's like every church probably has some attorneys there sign them up

00:18:10 and launch your lawsuit and let's get our first amendment rights back.

00:18:13 Sorry, I should have said that. But that's really how I feel so there's a lot more meat on the bone there, folks and certainly

00:18:19 been. I agree that's going to be a wrap for this one. Oh, yeah, hot biscuit we have got some estate

00:18:29 planning coming up for you. It's money on tap and you can reach us at 5 5 2 2 6 8 5 5 1 or info at your money on tap. Com,

00:18:41 folks, stick around you're gonna want to listen up to estate planning. And what is a conversation? You should be having at your dinner table right now

00:18:49 about your estate plan. Thanks for sticking around we'll be right back

00:18:58 for a number of our listeners. They have a lot of questions and you might be one of them today we're just

00:19:04 offering what we call seminars webinars over zoom meeting rooms where we have

00:19:10 top experts. Social security estate, planning and financial planning experts for you to speak with do a private

00:19:19 consultation. That way

00:19:20 today we're also having webinar based seminars where we're going to have multiple groups where you can be part of that and enjoy that as

00:19:26 well. Coming up here in the new year, give us a call at 8 5 5 to 6 8 5 5 1 or email us at info at your money on tap. Com to schedule your

00:19:39 seminar more money on tap in just a moment. Folks, it is so much

00:19:44 fun for us to bring you money on tap. My name is Seth Crossman

00:19:47 and I am one of the hosts here at money on tap I'm also a financial planner that's what? We do that's what Ben and I

00:19:55 do. And the fun part is is we get to have this radio show we talk about important things that we think you need to listen to

00:20:02 and be aware of to help raise the bar. As far as your financial it's a big part of what we're trying to do here. The other thing that we're doing here as

00:20:13 well as financial planners. We are welcoming you to come and call us and to join us. A brash Financial Group experience. What complete wealth management looks

00:20:24 like let's take a look at all sides of the issue. Get a three dimension perspective and put a plan

00:20:30 around your next step it's so

00:20:33 critical. And so many people just leave this part out. And then they find out later if I only would have

00:20:40 known, hey don't let that be your story. Give us a call at 8 5 5 2 2 6 8 5 5 1 or info at your money on tap. Com if you have

00:20:51 250,000 dollars of investable assets today, our plan is free to you. We think it's important for you to know the facts and have a

00:21:01 playbook. So you can have a successful retirement. Give us a call at 8 5 5 2 to 6 8 5 5 1 thanks for

00:21:10 listening on this clip notes edition of money on tap. We take a look back to a previous program where Ben and South offered some insights into some great places to

00:21:20 retire. Here is a highlight from that show. That focuses on a pretty good international deal.

00:21:26 Seth we've done a lot of shows on places to retire throughout the world. And

00:21:30 in the United States we've done all sorts of different things. People have called us about. Hey, where should I be retiring or what state is it Florida or

00:21:38 Arizona? And what are the pros and cons to that? We've done stuff on that we've talked to people about that. But this is kind of a different slant of an article and

00:21:46 not necessarily worthy of a show but probably worthy of a conversation for someone who's in this area.

00:21:52 But yeah, I mean, Italy has said, we're just going to do a flat tax for anybody who wants to come live here. Essentially it's a hundred thousand

00:22:03 of their currency, which I don't know what the actual currency exchange is on that. But currently, Italy tax rates

00:22:12 43% so if

00:22:14 you're making half a million bucks a year or you own a business a million dollars a year. You don't want to give away

00:22:21 43% of your money. But now you just got a clear

00:22:24 hundred thousand Yeah, so that's the income tax on all income generated outside of the country. So if you have your income domicile outside of Italy it's a flat tax 100

00:22:36 100 it is still a thousand because it's a Euro. It doesn't matter it a hundred thousand doesn't change

00:22:40 necessarily because it's a dollar, a Euro it's still hundred thousand right in the same currency exchange, right, right? Yeah, so, anyways that hundred thousand is

00:22:49 capped. So that could be a huge play.

00:22:53 If you have income outside of Italy

00:22:57 right now, the income inside of Italy is that 43% that's pretty notable

00:23:03 and high. But the great thing

00:23:07 about this solution is you can figure out a way to

00:23:11 create your income outside of Italy and cap, that tax rate which could become

00:23:17 incredibly low compared to what you're doing right now. Yeah, I mean, basically, I mean, I kind of did some rough math, but you're looking at

00:23:25 about depending on the state. You live in whether you have state income tax or not in New Hampshire organ happened to be two states that don't so that's kind of unique.

00:23:37 But if you live in some of these other states, like Taxachusetts or the other one that we

00:23:44 do that's where you kind of get hit? But somewhere between 200 and 75,000 and 300,000 dollars of income you're breaking, even with a move to Italy. What was that again?

00:23:57 275 to 300,000 dollars of income you're breaking, even with moving to Italy, almost somewhere. Yeah. So if you want to love it

00:24:04 it's a dream come true for some for some right now. Not necessarily I'm already. Like, the last scene of

00:24:13 Gladiator floating through the fields.

00:24:16 Italy with my hands across the week. Thanks for joining us for this cliff notes edition of money on tap with great tips from the pros in Threedimensional.

00:24:26 Investing utilizing insurance brokerage and fee based planning now here's more money on tap with set. And Ben,

00:24:42 welcome back you're listening to money on tap. My name is Seth crust and I'm here with Ben

00:24:47 rasa you can reach a

00:24:50 5 8 or info at your money on tap.

00:24:54 Com, we have a packed show for you today. This is an estate planning show and we're probably going. I have to take it

00:25:04 into two shows 2 steps because

00:25:07 the there's just so much information that we need to try to cover and and so much good information for

00:25:14 you and it's. The stuff that I'm sure that you're going to take to the water cooler. And as people are gonna be swapping their Airbnb ideas or whatever the IPO is this

00:25:26 week. You're going to get a chance to step and say I got some real knowledge here for you, folks

00:25:33 that's what we're gonna have some fun with. So we talk about a state planning regularly it's a part of what we do as planners at Bracha Financial Group it's essential

00:25:43 to a plan as we work with our clients. And so what's important for our clients. We think it's important for you.

00:25:51 And so that's what we're going to talk about today? So, what is it? This is state plan. Right?

00:25:58 How can these things come together? And how has this changed in the

00:26:05 landscape. Well we're going to get into that. We have some new IRA rules.

00:26:10 Right that's the first thing actually that we're going to be talking about here is you want to start to rethink

00:26:16 what the IRA setup is. So, before the retirement enhancement act in 2,010 upended this IRA stretch IRA provision

00:26:28 that would allow beneficiaries that would be.

00:26:32 That would be, of course, the spouse that would also be children or

00:26:37 grandchildren to be able to stretch out the distribution of an inherited IRA over their own lifetime.

00:26:43 Now you have this 10 year rule that's in place for those children or grandchildren or other beneficiaries. As long as it's not a spouse

00:26:54 that you need to consider that.

00:26:57 Okay, so this is what's happened is this is actually changed or kind of flopped. Some of the advice that we would have given

00:27:06 previously where beneficiaries that are not the siblings of the partners

00:27:12 and

00:27:13 not more than 10 years younger than the account owner.

00:27:17 Okay, basically don't have that lifetime to be able to take the distribution. Okay,

00:27:26 yeah, I was just going to say

00:27:29 the whole concept of stretching out your IRA was a phenomenal opportunity for people. I mean,

00:27:35 the government's come crashing down and said no 10 years that's the longest that's all you

00:27:40 get and you got to take it all out over those 10 years. And like you would set set if it's a sibling that's less than 10 years younger or a partner

00:27:51 that's an acceptable scenario. And

00:27:54 there's a lot going on inside the strategy of rethinking your IRAs. And I would actually encourage people and we've talked a lot about Roth

00:28:02 conversions this year. We've talked about it a couple different. I mean, probably what six times I don't know. It comes up pretty regularly.

00:28:09 But as long as you're under full retirement age, you can start converting those.

00:28:17 No RMDs start converting those rows and they just move the RMD age up from 70 and a half to 72 so

00:28:24 if you're not taking your RDS yet. I mean, start doing it. This is a good opportunity for you to take care of that. The other thing is is

00:28:35 I would say target gift your IRAs,

00:28:39 knowing these rules and knowing that you have a 10 year distribution. Maybe you do have a sibling or somebody that you want to have

00:28:47 receive things and we're going to talk a little bit about this too. But maybe you have a charity in mind in your estate. Maybe you just give them, the

00:28:56 IRA and take advantage of I'm. Not having to pay the taxes. And then gift other assets to your family. So there's a number of different ways to talk about your

00:29:07 IRAs and kind of break down your assets. And one thing we do is we really break down individual spousal assets. So we break it down by husband's assets. Wife's

00:29:16 assets joint assets. If you have a trust, we break down the trust assets and we don't do that haphazardly. I mean, we have

00:29:25 we have this kind of detailed orientation of what your assets are and how they're owned. So we can look at it from an estate planning view and make those educated decisions

00:29:38 if you haven't passed away and you're listening to the show, which would be the only way you could be listening to the show

00:29:44 that we we know

00:29:47 you can still make changes. So if you have planned on giving the IRA to the kids and then we're going to stretch it out over their lifetime and now you

00:29:56 can swing this stuff all around and

00:29:59 there's still time. But man it's going to cost you legal fees and expenses and stuff to do that, but, man, you can save your family

00:30:05 a lot of money. Knowing what you can do today.

00:30:09 Yeah, right out of the gate, though. Those IRA beneficiary forms that pretty much a readily available piece of paper that just gets changed and submitted that's it

00:30:21 I

00:30:22 act also change the required minimum distributions from that seven and a half to 72 I think you mentioned that Ben, but if you're younger than the RMD,

00:30:29 which is that required minimum distribution,

00:30:32 you can take a voluntary distribution and convert it to a Roth and I think that's where you were going with. That is really taken advantage of some of those

00:30:40 conversions. Number two today. We have for you on the estate planning side gifting assets.

00:30:47 Now,

00:30:48 one of the things some people say, well, I don't I give my money away

00:30:51 today. But there's a lot of things that people sometimes when they actually think about what they want to do and what they want to accomplish.

00:31:00 Sometimes it ends up making more sense than you think. I mean, you can give 15,000 dollars a way to to anybody without it

00:31:08 exercising. Your gift tax exemption. So husband in

00:31:12 30,000 per couple Yeah 30,000 for couple to a child beneficiary. So if you have three kids it's 30,000 each if you're married

00:31:21 that's a good amount of money that's 90 grand you can get out of your state now. Another thing is you can upfront

00:31:26 give on 5 29 plans and a lot of people don't know this. But you can give a grandchild five years all at once

00:31:35 into a 5 29 plan. A 15,000 bucks that's 75 grand and married. You can give 150,000

00:31:43 per

00:31:44 beneficiary. So the usual gift tax exclusion is the first

00:31:48 thing with this gifting strategy because it has no impact on the estate tax exemption. So you're basically saving 40% on those

00:31:57 gifts, if you're going to be subject to the estate tax. So

00:32:00 that's that first piece where the gifting strategy really has a benefit in that gifting

00:32:07 early idea right on the downside of the 5 29 you can't spread the

00:32:11 deduction over multiple years. And so if that's one of the things that's part of your 5 29 gifting strategy. You need to be aware of.

00:32:19 So you're not going to get that deduction on those taxes. But

00:32:23 and you also can't make additional gift to the same person during the five years

00:32:28 and there's more. If you die during

00:32:31 five years while you're spreading the

00:32:33 exclusion. Only a prorated amount applies to your estate, so those are a couple of the keys to kind of take away from that strategy. So don't

00:32:40 gift five years lying on your deathbed. That would be bad Yeah, yeah, yeah, a

00:32:47 why did that make me laugh? I don't know that's dark that's dark. Okay, number three number

00:32:56 3 this is a big deal. Okay, this is a big, big deal because we're kind of in this sick. Is Biden going to be President

00:33:03 Trump to have some sort of election over to who knows what's going to happen here. But gift tax exemption it's a huge opportunity to give assets away and it's a huge

00:33:15 it's enormous it's 11.5 8,000,000 as I just mentioned,

00:33:20 and I think what everyone's really concerned about is that this is going down.

00:33:25 This is going to be lowered and that's a big, big concern. So for people with large states, this is wonderful it's this

00:33:32 high. And I remember, I think it was 2,010 I think they give tax.

00:33:37 The gift tax went away for one year and that's when Steinbrenner I think that died that year and his whole hundred and

00:33:47 58,000,000 I don't know, however, the Yankees. I remember you're talking about that it's been a while. Yeah, that went away that passed totally state tax

00:33:57 free. But it's at 11.5 8,000,000 right now and that's a big deal. And a lot of people are very concerned

00:34:03 that this is going to be going down and one of the things I told told people long before we

00:34:10 did spousal deduction trust and all sorts of different things in the

00:34:13 past long before the rates got this high. But I still encourage people to take advantage of

00:34:18 those types of trust inside this. Because if this thing drops back down to 2,000,000 1,000,000 where it used to be only a short while ago.

00:34:28 I guess if you're quite lucky enough to die and whatever

00:34:32 this is a big deal and it's something that's going to be something you need to watch and be careful. But talking to a financial planner or a

00:34:40 state attorney is going to be. Somebody is going to help you kind of mitigate the pull back on that.

00:34:46 Yeah, so the IRS has given us guidance that indicates you will not be

00:34:51 penalized for using your exemption while you're a life. But if you hold on to an appreciated asset when you

00:34:57 die when the exemption is lower. Your estate will be higher because more of the estate will be taxable.

00:35:05 So what happens is you use up the

00:35:07 exclusion and then Congress doesn't lower the lifetime exemption amount. They'll still benefit because there's less of a state that can be taxed when you die

00:35:17 there's the trade off okay, the cost basis of the gifted asset carries over to the person

00:35:22 receiving the gift. So if you're going to end up being below the estate tax exemption in either

00:35:29 scenario might be better off holding on to the asset until death so that they can benefit from that cost basis or that step up in cost

00:35:36 basis and the other thing would be possibly that you might want to prioritize

00:35:40 your economic security. Okay, so that's another option to consider in this strategy as

00:35:46 well. Well that's a good point. So because you're talking about step up in cost basis. So that's like, if you bought

00:35:52 something or if you bought a stock for 10,000 dollars and now it's worth a hundred thousand dollars. And your kids inherit it

00:35:59 worth a hundred thousand dollars. Their cost is now considered a hundred thousand. So they're not paying capital gains on

00:36:06 that, where your cost was 10,000 it's a step up period that occurs,

00:36:11 but that's another thing that we talked about. I think it was last week we even talked about or the week before about how a Biden administration wants to

00:36:20 get rid of the step of cost basis rule. Because they think that that is unfair to the other taxpayers.

00:36:28 I do, I think it's unfair, I

00:36:31 think it, I think it's great. I think it's existed. And if we're going to start considering things fair and unfair that would be at first. I

00:36:39 think let's go do a lot of that in our government. But

00:36:45 that is something to be aware of. Because if you are doing some step

00:36:49 up cost basis planning, what I mean let's say, that's part of your plan today because the step of cost basis is

00:36:56 here, but then it goes away. So then you sell all your assets because, you know, you're not. And then reallocate. And

00:37:01 we move it around and then what happens if it comes back?

00:37:05 Right, because you have both sides fighting this issue. I mean,

00:37:09 hopefully we go from one term to another we're bouncing back and forth and maybe we get the step of cost basis back in 10 years. If

00:37:16 Biden pushes it away, I don't know, but those are

00:37:18 things that require you to constantly monitor your estate planning because it's not a one and done scenario, which is why the show

00:37:27 we'll exist in our show. Next year in the year after in the year after that. And the year after that cause changes constantly happen,

00:37:33 folks, we are we're money on tap you're listening to us, you can reach a dive two to 6 8 5 5 1 or info at your money on tap.

00:37:44 Com, we are talking about estate planning. Now, this is bringing us out of the

00:37:49 21 some of the things that we've been working through it

00:37:53 with our clients and our offices and just getting

00:37:56 prepared, getting prepared for for that next step, you listen to money on top we're gonna take a quick break we'll be back with more estate planning. Thanks for listening

00:38:13 if you're listening today and your questions are outside the box of estate planning or financial

00:38:19 planning or any number of the pieces that we kind of traditionally talk about don't forget that breakout financial offers

00:38:25 auto home and business

00:38:27 insurance and we have an entire department that handles all of that for

00:38:30 you. Give us a call at 8 5 5 2 to 6 8 5 5 1 and be happy to take care of those needs for you or email us at info at your money on tap com

00:38:41 more money on tap in just a moment. So

00:38:45 folks it is a lot of fun to do what we do here at money on tap and we get a lot of calls and a lot of inquiries

00:38:50 about what next and if you didn't know, we have seminars available for you. What the ZoomIn are

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00:39:07 about Social Security techniques. Like, what does it

00:39:12 really look

00:39:13 like learn

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00:39:18 topic and there's several that we talk about on the Uber. So if this is something that's of interest to you? Give us a call at 5 5 2 to 6 8 5 5 1 it's totally

00:39:28 free. You jump onto a zoom you learn from us. You have fun and you get to walk away with something that

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00:39:53 or info at your money on tap. Com and I for your zoom in, see what's coming next. Now back to money on tap with Ben and

00:40:11 welcome back you're listened to money on tap on Ben rasa you're here with Seth. Crust bin today we're talking about estate

00:40:17 planning. We are on part one of a two part series, you can reach us at 8 5 5 to 6 8 5 5 1 you can also email us at info at your money. On tap

00:40:30 com and if you have questions about a state planning, this is a great place to push it out. If you're looking for information on a specific topic we cover here or next

00:40:39 week. Give us a bus. Reach out to number four. What we're going to talk a little bit about is your vocal trust

00:40:47 space and building an irrevocable trust for your spouse in a couple of different ways and a couple different benefits around that.

00:40:55 Now, just real quick. I mean we've talked about revocable Seth and irrevocable trust and people get these confused all the time.

00:41:02 And a revocable trust is something that once you do it, you cannot undo it

00:41:09 okay, this is a signed sealed and delivered you're done.

00:41:15 One of the things that people are doing is what we call slats or spousal lifetime access

00:41:22 trust her name, people have all sorts of names to the trust. It really doesn't matter what the name is.

00:41:28 But sometimes they try to put a name that makes more sense to it. But you put the money away. You can't touch the

00:41:33 principal and usually creates access to income or income feature to it, which allows the surviving spouse to have an asset sitting out

00:41:41 there. Now we've talked about

00:41:44 look back periods and all sorts of things on our vocal trust for health concerns

00:41:48 and we'll get a little bit into that. But in your vocal trust, you put this away. And then

00:41:53 ultimately, you can. Your spouse can get

00:41:57 money. And then I can go on to the kids or however you want it to be pushed out later on and that's a very good way of getting money out of your

00:42:06 state and

00:42:07 protected from

00:42:08 all sorts of things, including creditors. I think that's probably one of the biggest issues is whether it's a government creditor or a regular credit or

00:42:16 it's a big deal to keep that money there

00:42:21 what's the number one issue with this. The problem is, is because you can't undo it. When you build your vocal trust like this. You really have to make

00:42:29 sure that you're not having

00:42:32 a need for money. Like you're not putting too much of your money into this flat and just be coming over to overly dependent on that. And then I have

00:42:41 my goodness, gracious. I

00:42:43 mean,

00:42:44 everyone wants to protect everything. But at the end of the day, you can't make yourself poor. I mean, the whole point of putting the money away was to live off of.

00:42:51 So this is not a one only scenario this is really to benefit that healthy spouse.

00:42:57 Yeah, one of the things. If you're creating these slats for each

00:43:02 other. Some key things that you can't make them identical to each other.

00:43:08 And honestly, I don't even have a reason why I usually like to try to dig too deep into that question. Like why if we can understand that we understand more,

00:43:16 but you just can't do that.

00:43:20 And also there's longevity here that you have to consider. So really putting these things in a place and having

00:43:25 them set aside for a while creates the legitimacy here to the technique of what's going on because there's

00:43:34 certainly as somebody out there that's trying to challenge what the estate planning world is going to be doing.

00:43:40 So another piece here hiring an independent trustee to oversee the distributions. Okay, this is just one of those things that you really just need to put into

00:43:50 place and also there's again. The cautionary note about dumping

00:43:54 your estate brings basically your retirement wealth into them or a big portion of your retirement wealth into them.

00:44:01 So what is the acid test here, really? You shouldn't fund the slat to an

00:44:06 extent that your asset base is reduced below what's necessary to maintain your lifestyle. So that's really how you kind of gauge this here.

00:44:14 And the other thing is just to remember, these are irrevocable. Alright, the revocable irrevocable thing

00:44:20 there.

00:44:22 If there's anything going on like a great divorce, then really steer clear of this as a

00:44:29 strategy, I I didn't understand what the term gray divorce was. I had to look it

00:44:33 up. I had read that in one of the articles that we found and putting all this up together and

00:44:39 that's a business type divorce and people over the age of 50 I guess it's a very right

00:44:46 scenario. So it's a surprise it is really one of those things that I've

00:44:51 you hear about you're like, wow. That doesn't make sense. Now. I did have a

00:44:57 lovely a friend of ours here, locally. That was in that situation and they got remarried. That

00:45:02 was a nice thing to see. Yeah, always reconciliation, right? Lord, willing Lord willing. So number five, this will be the last one we cover today. But

00:45:14 number

00:45:15 five is

00:45:17 carrying

00:45:19 forward. Your spouse's exemption

00:45:22 Postdeath so one of the things that happens is that we have this 11.5

00:45:27 8,000,000 dollar state tax exemption. And when one spouse

00:45:31 passes away, they may not exercise the entire amount. So upon death, they can carry that

00:45:37 forward and that's a big, big deal. I know when we talk about 11.5 8,000,000 Seth I'm sure a lot of listeners. Just instantly tune out like I'm just not

00:45:48 there and that's completely okay. Because we're really not to talking about the number we're talking about the

00:45:54 technique because they will bring this 11.5 8,000,000 down and it used to be as low as

00:46:00 650,000 and so in today's world, you own a house in a 4 1 K and boom you're over 6 50 and it's not

00:46:10 that's not a really high number, but that's where it started off before it's huge skyrocketing rise that has pushed it to the

00:46:16 11.5

00:46:17 million. And

00:46:19 this is something that you have to be careful of that? You don't get caught. Not thinking about this because it's

00:46:24 11.5 8,000,000 and saying, hey, how do I do this because if they drop it to a million dollars and and your spouse

00:46:32 you're worth a million five,

00:46:35 you could push a half a million or three quarters of a million dollars into they carry for bypass exemption trust. Okay, another trust method and

00:46:45 utilize the exemption and try to Max that out. If it drops below so these are really kind of things to be thinking about. And that's the spousal deduction,

00:46:55 trust credit, shelter trust there's lots of different names for

00:46:58 it doing that and creating that, because just because someone died and didn't do the trust you can do that up right after the

00:47:06 and take advantage of that tax benefit. The other thing here is that

00:47:14 when the second spouse does pass

00:47:16 away, I think one of the things that

00:47:18 is strong here is that just the air.

00:47:21 We just take control of the

00:47:23 trust. And then they just distribute it

00:47:26 out and that's completely outside the second spouse is passing. And I think that's probably the number

00:47:30 one thing that people ask is is how the second round happens. I don't know if we've covered that well enough, but it is a complicated scenario. But

00:47:37 it's actually a lot simpler, it sounds.

00:47:40 And this is one of those strategies that we see a lot more with the blended families.

00:47:45 They use the trust to provide for a surviving spouse and then eventually for the children from a previous marriage

00:47:52 and that's one of those ways that those blended families really work. These things out now the tax savings happen when the second spouse dies.

00:48:00 So this is the funds in the

00:48:03 bypass trust go directly to the children, avoiding the estate tax. So that's really,

00:48:08 that and those assets in that bypass trust can grow indefinitely they're never going to be taxed on the state level at all.

00:48:14 Yeah, but they don't get that stepped up basis that we talked about previously right with those assets. But even the

00:48:25 top marginal gains

00:48:27 rate is lower than the federal estate tax rate. There

00:48:30 that's the benefit and there's a lot of considerations here with how to structure this. There really is no rubber stamp when it comes to doing this kind of work

00:48:42 because you are

00:48:45 unique there's what we have is the laws that are provided or the code that is provided and the methods that are available. But

00:48:57 understanding yourself and your goals and

00:48:59 the context of your family and how you are really pulled together. And your assets are pulled together and seeing all of those pieces

00:49:07 this is certainly a lot larger conversation. Then we can have right now, right, Ben.

00:49:14 Well, yes,

00:49:17 but I think the thing is is

00:49:19 one of the things

00:49:21 about I think a show like this. I would listen to podcasts and listen to different things. And for people who are

00:49:27 listening it's the one or 2 tidbits where you say you know what I need to know more about that? I need that that's something we're dealing

00:49:33 that's something I'm concerned about. And I think when we start touching on different topics and you want to dive

00:49:39 deeper that's what a phone call really comes into play or drop an email to us. We can get you in touch with an attorney. If you need

00:49:46 somebody. If you need CPA, whatever you need. Give us a buzz. We can try to hook you up with somebody that can solve that problem for you understand that

00:49:54 issue. If we can't help you ourselves and that's 8 5 5 2 2 6 8 5 5 1 to email is just info

00:50:03 at your money on tap. Com thanks a lot folks. This has been a lot of fun. I can't wait to actually get into part

00:50:10 two of this and we'll be there with you this next week. So more from money on tap more from beneath that step.

00:50:19 So

00:50:20 looking forward to it. Thanks a lot, I have a great week, everyone.

00:50:23 Thanks for joining us today. You've been listening to money on tap. You can reach us at 8 5 5 2 to 6 5 5 1 or info at your money on tap.

00:50:32 Com also we're in a

00:50:34 podcast you can find us at any of the podcast venues. Out there, we appreciate the likes and the listens we're also at Facebook at back three investing on Twitter at

00:50:45 BFG underscore LLC. We appreciate you joining us here today and we hope you make it a great day and a great life. Thanks for joining us with money on

00:50:56 top. There are a lot of pieces to helping our aging parents in the final chapters of their

00:51:01 lives on this clip notes tradition of money on tap set. And and look at the importance of addressing our parents

00:51:08 finances, something that needs to be handled with a certain amount of

00:51:12 urgency. Financial conversations can be one of those bridges. It just takes more time than maybe some of the others to really cross. So whether

00:51:21 there's medical needs or immediate right now or in the

00:51:24 future, really. Just being aware of the finances here is what we're trying to talk about is trying to just think

00:51:30 about what it is that your parents are doing and how they are engaging in their finances. Is a checkbook, are they online? Are they using credit cards? How many do they

00:51:41 have? How they operate around their finances is even just a conversation. But possibly that can introduce

00:51:49 and help. That conversation move forward. Absolutely, and I think

00:51:56 interesting story too. I had in that that

00:51:59 scenario just an example. There was a health change in

00:52:03 event, people said hey, we want to come in. We want you to meet with our son and or and or daughter and everything was

00:52:09 a little bit of heart concern there. Some kind of stuff had popped up and everyone was

00:52:14 where now things have kind of settled down and things are a little better not perfect, but better

00:52:18 and they're like, OK we're going to try to do this stuff over the next six to 9

00:52:22 months. So, what happened to we want to meet with you next week, I turn it nine months and I'm talking to them I'm like,

00:52:27 listen. This is not an overnight decision. These are not overnight. Issues to address, they take months to address. So nine months from now, we sit

00:52:36 down it's not going to be like, flicking a light switch from often to

00:52:41 on there's a process and there's a lot of work behind that. And I said

00:52:45 you still want to move with urgency. And some of the stuff they want to do, they want to put into a trust and it's complicated. And they

00:52:52 want to protect some assets. And they need a clock to start to start and I said, listen, if you're going to do that

00:52:58 trust, you have a five year o'clock this is what they needed to do.

00:53:01 And I said if you wait nine months now, you have a five year 9 month clock. You still haven't even had any time to get with the

00:53:08 attorney and write the trust and make sure that's correct, so that might be so now you've got a six year

00:53:13 clock. You need to get that clock moving as soon as possible and try to explain urgency around making these decisions is really important because financials

00:53:22 are usually the number one thing. I find that people do not want to let go

00:53:27 of. They do not want to hand that over to the kids. They don't want their kids telling them what they can spend or

00:53:32 do

00:53:33 they think, that's all about what this is it's not a making sure that you're documenting what's going on there I've seen a lot of people kind of create a worksheet or

00:53:43 just kind of like an inventory, really of all the different things that are going on Medicare long term care policies. All these different policies. Life,

00:53:50 you have a list, have a list for who your accounting, your attorney or say in one

00:53:57 Finewhat we do is we provide a listing provide online access. We provide

00:54:03 documentation for a complete list of assets depending on the person's scenario, but we've done that for attorneys for

00:54:10 accountants for people's kids. We encourage people to bring their kids into our office. We want them for two reasons 1 we want them to know what their parents

00:54:18 own. Why they own it, okay? And what the purpose of it is because

00:54:23 after

00:54:24 after plans been put in place, having kids come in to evaluate a plan and figure out whether they think, it's good better and

00:54:30 different makes things much more messy than trying to understand why they went into

00:54:35 this initially. And I really always encourage that. And I know set does too.

00:54:39 Thanks for joining us for this cliff notes edition of money on tap with great tips from the pros in Threedimensional investing utilizing insurance brokerage and fee based

00:54:52 planning. The views expressed are not necessarily the opinion of this radio station and should not be construed directly or

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00:55:11 situations can vary, therefore, the

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00:55:58 well, bye.

00:00:00 Welcome to money on tap

00:00:15 money on tap your personal finance

00:00:17 headquarters, where we bring out the professionals experience. So fine in what we call free dimensional, investing utilizing insurance brokerage and debased planning

00:00:26 that's what we do on this show. We look at all sides of the issues. We bring a fully independent planning perspective to the table

00:00:36 hey, welcome back. You are listening to money on tap. My name is Seth Crossman and I'm Ben Bracha folks. If you are joining us by podcast today

00:00:45 we want to thank you. Or if you're joining us via the magic of radio, we want to thank you we're grateful to have you aboard. As we step into another week

00:00:57 of some incredible news that we're going to have a chance to cover here shortly with you. But we're going to focus today

00:01:06 on you and what you can do to wrap up your 20 20 and take advantage of some tax breaks. How can to lower your taxes and 20 20 ultimately

00:01:19 as financial planners that's what we do at Bracha Financial Group as we look out for you

00:01:25 and we try to see how can we create a better situation for you? And your taxes, those flow through in your

00:01:33 taxes or in your investment options. And all sorts of all sorts of things that we love to look at at the universe investing, but everything

00:01:40 believe it or not does have to go through this tax filter. Right, so what can you

00:01:47 do? You know th I mean I'm really excited about doing this when we talk about taxes all the time. And we talk about different ways

00:01:54 to help mitigate taxes and address taxes and

00:01:59 it's nice that we got a year end show we're going to cry. Some of these things up bring back some point we've already made. Maybe some new points for people that

00:02:08 haven't caught us before or consolidate a little bit here and help people because there's some stuff happening. I mean

00:02:16 there's a lot of stuff happening in our world between election fraud. Question marks and videos I've watched which are a little scary. And then we've got a potential.

00:02:25 Biden

00:02:26 presidency and what that might and how that's going to affect taxes. So we get a lot of moving parts here. And I

00:02:31 think we're going to try to Criss cross some of the stuff today so I'm excited about that?

00:02:37 Yeah, do we need to disclose that we're not like CPAs and all that kind of jazz just so people aren't you look like one, though,

00:02:45 I am in my CPA uniform

00:02:48 today, but no we're not we're financial planners. But

00:02:52 this is what we do. And this is the landscape that we're all living in right now

00:02:57 and we're here to help and we're going to have some fun. So before we go down that road too much further, it is time for money in the news.

00:03:14 First up today, Seth we've got an article here in the Wall Street

00:03:18 Journal and this is about water brothers

00:03:21 pretty interesting. So they're getting ready to release all the 2,021 films on HBO, Max and in the theaters at the exact same time. Pretty

00:03:33 interesting, pretty interesting. I don't know if this is a gamble or this is just a response to the pandemic or with all the streaming. And

00:03:41 I have no idea. I mean, kind of the traditional

00:03:46 I don't know, you know, the movie comes out in the theaters. And then a few months later, it shows up on a

00:03:50 streaming service and you can buy it and then a few months later it's free on some

00:03:56 premium channel subscription. I mean that's kind of the standard, right?

00:03:58 Right that's what we're used to sing and we've actually had money in the news with at AMP T, who owns

00:04:06 Time Warner or Warner Brothers

00:04:10 has been a conversation that we've had in the past as far as them getting into this subscription service like Netflix

00:04:18 or

00:04:19 Amazon there's Apple. TV there's all these different subscription services now that are coming out. And

00:04:25 before it was what were they doing to try to get your subscriptions? Disney plus

00:04:31 in the content that they were buying in

00:04:33 office was the office was? I think the most

00:04:36 popular watch show. No, it was friends.

00:04:38 I don't know it was kind of back and forth between both was, like these older shows that they were purchasing rights to to get your

00:04:45 subscriptions. But now

00:04:47 they're really trying to thread this meal with the pandemic and saying, we're going to just bypass the eaters

00:04:52 because nobody's going to the theaters, but we're going to use this to get your subscriptions and HBO. Max hasn't really pulled together the

00:05:01 content that some of the other streaming franchises have but I'll tell you when I took a look at this and I saw done.

00:05:09 I went

00:05:11 Oh, my gosh I'm probably gonna have to get HBO back now because that's one of my favorite all time movies. Remember that as a kid is just

00:05:23 incredibly visually

00:05:26 amazing. Anyway that's just my bent on this but there was a lot more to the article in some of the state of affairs with these services and how they're going to be

00:05:37 bringing content to us. And if you're looking at an investment standpoint I'm just wondering how many people out there are looking at these home studio or

00:05:48 your electronics I'm trying to think of who's creating the best TV today or whatever and some of the options that you have to invest in some of these

00:05:58 behind. The scenes moving pieces to

00:06:02 possibly a future move. I mean, we know it right now, but there's a future move. And really, this home feed or kind of stand out. Yeah, you know, I think this is

00:06:10 interesting there's a lot of people that no matter what the scenario

00:06:14 is they're not going to be wanting to pack into a theater. But I have noticed that over the years that theaters have reduced the

00:06:22 the theater spacing by the little tiny seats to putting in these elaborate

00:06:27 reclining in. I mean, a a luxury and get your Nachos delivered to your

00:06:34 seed. Yeah, no, I definitely think that that's something

00:06:37 that has changed in its own, right. So the number of people sitting in the seat is less so that

00:06:42 probably on some level. But, I mean, the movie theater just seems like for people who are concerned about this pandemic at heightened levels.

00:06:50 Not the number one location they're going this Christmas holiday season.

00:06:53 Yeah, I think it's going to be a bounce back story as well. I'm hoping in the next year. We have a conversation around

00:07:00 how people are flooding back to life.

00:07:02 And this is one of those things that I think we all can say we've gone we've done. We've had a great time. We love going to the movies it's an

00:07:10 experience that whether it's

00:07:12 your date. You

00:07:14 take the family out to watch the new Disney movie. You just can't replace that in your home. The best that we could try still. I don't think it's going to

00:07:24 ever replace the theater. Maybe that's just me. Maybe that's a ways down the road, but that's my wishful thinking at the end of the day,

00:07:31 I think there's some truth to that. I think there's some truth. But I think that on some level, I mean, with Disney having released

00:07:39 Milan, I don't know if you remember that but lo was released and then they said

00:07:44 here, obviously people are going to the theater. So we're going to release it at the same time. And I

00:07:49 think I think these companies are saying we can release in the theater. But the truth is is that we're going to get a lot more sales

00:07:55 right off the bat, if we just released it at home in the meantime that now I wonder how that plays out long in its long business perspective.

00:08:05 Well, you tell

00:08:06 us, what are you guys doing?

00:08:08 We want to hear from you. You can reach us at five to 6 5 1 or info at your money on tap com what's important to you, folks that's what we're going to be talking

00:08:20 about? And the money in the news is just a part of that.

00:08:25 Now, this headline this headline really snapped my head because a it talks about the Trump Administration and B they're suing and see it's Facebook.

00:08:40 Yeah, this article really made me

00:08:44 angry. I got to tell you set that may be really irritated me I'm not really becoming a Facebook

00:08:53 dislike

00:08:54 I'm not on Facebook. But I do not like this story here,

00:09:00 but basically what the Trump Administration is suing them about is that they have only been advertising jobs for HB one

00:09:10 workers which are basically green card. Visa workers and not providing them to

00:09:18 us people here in the United States and it's become apparently

00:09:24 obvious during the pandemic. This article comes to us from the Wall Street Journal by Michelle Hackman and Sadie, German and deep as

00:09:34 them. And we just thank them for bringing this to us. Because given what we know from the article and that's really all we have to go off of it

00:09:44 was a it was really sad thing to take a look at where Facebook

00:09:51 is ultimately giving away what could be a US based

00:09:57 job?

00:09:58 This is beyond. This is

00:10:01 unpatriotic is how I almost even interacted. This says in a 17 page complaint filed Thursday I quote the Justice Department civil rights division said Facebook

00:10:10 inadequately advertised at least 2,600 positions

00:10:16 were filled by foreign professionals on H. B one visas when the company was looking to sponsor them for permanent

00:10:23 residency permits known as green cards. I mean, they were literally trying to get people to be able to

00:10:28 become permanent residents of the United States through this process while a discrimination. A discrimination based off of

00:10:36 being a US citizen is what this boils back into a

00:10:41 you're right? It gets we started up, but I literally livid about this because they weren't even taking online applications for these jobs. They were

00:10:53 doing mail in

00:10:54 only and one of the advertisements they had out of all the advertisements at one point they had one US applicant that was able to figure out. These are jobs now.

00:11:04 So there's two types of positions you got to fill right there's the Super high tech.

00:11:11 I maybe it's a security

00:11:15 professional engineer person who's a brilliant genius out of XYZ country, who needs to come and work here to fill a Facebook? Need

00:11:26 that's one person. There may be one or 2 or a handful in the world. That you want that person and you need them here. I get that and I have no problem with

00:11:35 that they're talking about positions that required only a bachelor degree and two years worth of experience for general art.

00:11:47 I mean, these are not a curator.

00:11:51 These are not like high tech. Complicated

00:11:54 positions and there's thousands of them were in the middle of a pandemic and we're dealing with unemployment issues and they're still fighting this.

00:12:01 Yeah, really upsetting.

00:12:04 A matter of fact. That makes me go back into some other articles that we've taken a look

00:12:11 basically Facebook's coming under a lot of scrutiny and

00:12:15 understandable they're

00:12:17 massive in what they do and how much money they consume and how much control they have. And I think it's just one more iron or

00:12:27 arrow in the quiver here for people really looking to either disband or take down a lot of what Facebook's

00:12:34 influences. And if it's something that's currently in your holdings and

00:12:39 considering think about it, I don't know that's one way that you can certainly have a vote and that's one of the things that we

00:12:46 consider there's lots of ways for you to be an investor out there and to participate. Just think about it,

00:12:53 folks. What are you doing? And who are you supporting? That's what I would

00:12:58 say? Well, next on the list here, the we've got an article that a lot of people are probably keeping some perspective on and

00:13:06 that's being Boeing on its first big 7 37 Max order since grounding ended

00:13:15 basically an Irish airline.

00:13:18 Such a deal for 75 Max Jets. Man this is coming after all sorts of cancellations of these and all sorts of different I mean, we have had two major 7 37 can

00:13:32 problems. I mean it's bad and

00:13:35 that's been. I just saw the first one. Take off the other day. With passengers

00:13:41 on the news, it was a big deal.

00:13:44 Yeah, this is so nice to hear. Good news coming back for

00:13:51 Boeing. I love it's an American company we

00:13:58 used to be one of the biggest in the Dow. And

00:14:01 gosh, over a year ago before we started to have the whole 7 37 Max conversation of what's going on with this airline or this not airline, but

00:14:11 the airplane that was having these issues and Boeing struggling over this last year.

00:14:18 It's one of those stories that I

00:14:21 continue to

00:14:24 be a big part of our economy. Be a big part of what we are. I think as Americans in many different places across America and so I love

00:14:34 seeing this happen. I love seeing them. Do what they needed to do admit with where they were

00:14:39 wrong. The FAA being very thorough and everything that they were going through and what we talked about in the past was the getting back on track.

00:14:50 And so anyways, yeah, really great to see that this is happening in its. I think Ryan Air probably got a really good deal for

00:15:01 starter, but there's several other people that are out there that are receiving orders of these planes as well. And it's nice to know that it's going to be a

00:15:09 a good story going forward. Yeah, I mean, after 346 lives

00:15:15 we're lost or the two crashes that

00:15:18 this is a big deal. They don't take this lightly in the FAA world that's for sure. But it looks like United Airlines is gonna be the first company to actually get

00:15:28 the new Max since the regulators ended. The grounding

00:15:33 and British Airways had signed an intent letter for 200 planes so

00:15:38 there's some very popular things going on around getting these orders back up and going. Which which speaks a lot to what you know. What the airline industry sees inside

00:15:47 of whatever potential orders future orders air traffic needs and so forth it's a big deal to be buying

00:15:55 by new planes right after a pandemic so that's a good sign for us.

00:16:02 Well,

00:16:03 folks, you heard it here. Maybe not first, but

00:16:09 it's a lot of fun to talk about these things here at

00:16:12 Rice Financial Group and money on tap. You even listen in the money on the news. You can reach us at 8 5 5 to 6 5 5 1 or info at your money on tap. Com

00:16:25 what we're gonna be diving in today? Okay, so here we are at the end of 20 20 and I'm sure there's a lot of things that are on your plate

00:16:35 with everything. That's going on around us. A lot of news out there. But these are some timely moves for you, how can you take care of yourself

00:16:45 and taking into consideration the tax year that we're in there's probably

00:16:52 one or 2 things that you're going to want to listen to that applies to

00:16:56 you. No matter what your situation and that you can take advantage of to try to lower your taxes and 20 20

00:17:02 and just improve your financial situation. And your awareness we're going to be talking about that

00:17:07 next and we're glad you're here with us today. Thanks again for the like the lessons we'll be right back. You listen to money on past

00:17:18 folks. We have a lot of fun doing this

00:17:22 show money on tap and Ben and I have been financial planners for years and years and our goal here with you is to bring you into the

00:17:32 room. Have the conversations that we have. We think these are critical conversations for.

00:17:37 But we understand this is a limited space. And what we'd love to do is to open the doors to you with us. At Bracha Financial Group. So you could

00:17:47 experience what it means to have three dimensional planning in your life

00:17:52 let's take a look at all sides of your situation. Your scenario and see how we can put together the best plan

00:18:01 possible taking into account your

00:18:03 risk. How much can you have in the market? How much do we need to have set aside and doing different things for your

00:18:10 life that's what we do as planners. How we engage with you. And we welcome you to do that with us. You can reach us at 8 5 5 to 6 8 5 5 1 or info at your money on tap.

00:18:22 Com now, if you have 250

00:18:25 that are investable assets today. Our planning is free to you. We want you to have the PlayBook to have a successful experience in

00:18:37 retirement. Give us a call 8 5 5 2 to 6 5 5 1 or info at your money on tap. Com Ben and I

00:18:46 welcome you to Bracha financial for complete wealth management now back to money on tap with Ben and

00:19:01 welcome back you're listening to money on tap. This has been Bryan Seth trust. We are diving into

00:19:08 taxes and our end taxes today

00:19:12 I'm pretty excited about the show. So I wanted me to do the intro on this one.

00:19:15 So I'm signing up. You can reach us at 8 5 to 6 8 5 5 1 or you can email us at info at your money on tap.

00:19:26 Com

00:19:26 and today we're gonna start talking we've got eight different earn tax items. And I

00:19:32 think I want to reference this set with the fact that we have talked about a number of these over the past few

00:19:38 months, even done shows on individual items here. So I would encourage anybody who hears something specific. Just go back through our

00:19:47 library. You can find us any major PODCAST venue out there. I heard Stitcher SoundCloud iTunes. You name

00:19:55 it and dig through it. If you have a specific topic, you

00:19:58 want to run, but we got eight of them here today. And as we go through these eight topics, I think what I really want to encourage everyone to do is that

00:20:06 there are not just eight, right? I mean, everyone's situation is so uniquely different and we

00:20:13 do tax incentive investing every day. That is our specialty. This is what we focus on.

00:20:19 And if you have a

00:20:20 scenario where you feel like you're paying too much in taxes, you feel like something's not quite right. Or something's wrong

00:20:25 or could I make this better? Give us a call that's really where it starts to sit down with us. We can figure out if we've got some scenarios and options that we can

00:20:34 do outside of this, that might meet those needs.

00:20:38 So as we dive into this today, probably one of the most interesting

00:20:46 easy scenarios for people to do is if you

00:20:50 are able to itemize and that means you're able to do individual deductions on your taxes and so forth. Or if you run a business or on a

00:21:00 business. The number one thing to do is to pay some of your 2,021 bills today. Buy that extra laptop.

00:21:10 See if you

00:21:11 see if you have anything coming up in January that you can pay. And the other thing is too is maybe you have some income coming in

00:21:17 from a various source or something like that. Maybe that's something that gets delayed. I don't know maybe you discuss with a person

00:21:26 that getting paid in the beginning of January and reduce that income stream

00:21:31 20 20 has been a tough year for some people. But for other companies and other

00:21:35 organizations it's kind of like there's a polar opposite it, Seth. I mean, some companies are

00:21:39 doing unbelievably well. And then other companies are truly suffering and it is

00:21:45 really a clarity that I have not seen before in our world. What are your thoughts? What are you seeing over there? Yeah

00:21:54 there's gosh it's hard to even dive into that piece

00:21:59 without creating another show between the haves and the have nots. Er, because there's such a division of clearly who's

00:22:07 capable in a pandemic and geared for a pandemic. And who is not

00:22:12 and it's really not a decision of the business. A lot of the time it's a decision of the governor of that state.

00:22:20 The legislators that are going to step in and say you get to bank it or doubt

00:22:26 God, we grieve for our friends and families that are in these situations today as well. But

00:22:33 on the pay, the bills. Now,

00:22:36 one of those things that comes across the decision making of what are the things that are out there that we can take advantage of in trying

00:22:47 to front, run some of these expenses. And if this is again, the itemized deduction if you are or not. And so

00:22:55 some of these out layers there, it might be a review of your medical bills. If you've had a significant medical situation out

00:23:01 there that you want to take a look at that if you are paying tuition, you can possibly do some prepay on tuition

00:23:11 and that's. Not one of those that a whole lot of people even

00:23:16 consider there's also, the contributing to college savings plans

00:23:21 there's a few of them out there that you might want to take a look at in some state deductions there. You can take a look at as well.

00:23:30 And another one that doesn't really show up all that often. But is available to some is the able account and that's if you have a

00:23:41 family has a special needs, you can contribute up to

00:23:45 15,000 this year to that able account which allows

00:23:49 people with qualifying disabilities to save money without jeopardizing the government benefits right in a pair can give to that account.

00:23:55 And if if you have a state where you have income tax, you'll get a state income tax deduction there's no federal on that.

00:24:05 But one that's one scenario where you can get that

00:24:09 another scenario is in the 5 29

00:24:12 world. If you have an income tax piece. You can get a deduction. If you use an in state program there as well.

00:24:18 Or maybe if you're doing some college planning and so

00:24:21 forth that's something you're probably going to want to sit down with the planner on and regarding that. But for the tax side that might actually work well,

00:24:29 the other thing that

00:24:31 as you're looking at your bills and you're looking at this and trying to structure

00:24:36 income. If you've had a tough year and

00:24:40 you have a you have a customer who's having a great year but might be buying for you next year. They may be looking for a way to create a bill to you and that's

00:24:52 great income to you. Have you create a bill to them? And that's what I'm trying to say and they may want to pay a bill out

00:24:57 this year. Well, you can receive it at a lower tax bracket because maybe you haven't had an underperforming year and those might be opportunities where you can work with

00:25:07 various customers and vendor relationships and try to build that that's something that I think can be strategized well and worked out

00:25:15 well, even with contracts even if it's going to be a delivery of contract period, you can have attorneys draft some of that stuff

00:25:21 up. So those are things that I would probably say really drive a lot of kind of

00:25:27 you. Got a few weeks here you're coming down to the wire. You know exactly what's going on. This is where some creative thought

00:25:35 is really relevant and I would sit down with an attorney, a CPA financial plan or somebody to help

00:25:41 strategize around. Some of this stuff with different questions, well,

00:25:44 then, what about some of these losses that we've got in the portfolio this last year? Gosh there's been such a disruption in the

00:25:54 market. Is really, this is going out to Warren Buffet, who lost a ton of money on

00:25:59 airlines. This is my advice to him. Yes,

00:26:04 hey, did you know that the tax code allows you to sell investments that have fallen below your purchase price that's a loss to you

00:26:12 and you can actually offset capital gains in taxable accounts.

00:26:19 So this is one of those nice little perks there and it's called tax loss harvesting. If you haven't taken a look at this, we believe it or not

00:26:27 we have a show on tax loss

00:26:30 harvesting. You can listen

00:26:32 to to really kind of get some of the nuances here because we do run out of time a lot of the time when we start getting into our shows and trying to make our way through

00:26:40 a lot of these topics. And the highlights reel

00:26:43 but, yeah, this is the time of year. And this is an interesting debate that Ben we're having this last year. What do we think the

00:26:49 end of year what do we think the market is going to do? And

00:26:53 Ben, why don't you go ahead and step into that one I'll set you up there. But thank you, Seth, thank you, thank you.

00:27:01 Well, no, I mean we've talked about this and he made great points about this too. And I really felt like there might be a sell off this month

00:27:09 because of tax loss harvesting. I really felt like this is one year where people had some losses in the beginning of the year

00:27:16 through the pandemic. And I think maybe some people reallocate it and took advantage of maybe oversold Airlines or

00:27:23 oversold energy or oversold hotels or whatever it has some substantial gains and it's a great time to sell and maybe offset some of those prior year losses.

00:27:34 Even that's going to be more for the equity player the person is trading stocks in that kind of

00:27:39 after tax

00:27:41 account

00:27:43 and

00:27:43 that's an

00:27:44 opportunity that you can take advantage of. If you did have some losses at the beginning of the year that

00:27:48 you can sell some gains and kind of try to wash some of that out and kind of reset your cost basis, which is great considering

00:27:57 potential tax changes that could be coming down the road and we're going to talk a little bit more about that in a little bit.

00:28:03 But selling stocks and what's going to happen in the market.

00:28:06 I mean, I think we got a good 6 9 months here. I think the market is going to be strong, generally for six to 9 months. I think there's going to be some peaks and

00:28:15 valleys. But I think overall the pandemic.

00:28:19 One of the things that I think is really pushing the market up is the amount of cash that people are saving by not

00:28:24 traveling. Not going out to eat. All the lockdowns have really created more cash flow, more

00:28:30 savings, less spending in a lot of different ways. And that has created opportunity for people to invest money. And so I think honestly there's going to be

00:28:41 there's going to be something. And if it's not a sell off in December is probably going to be a quick sell off in January and off we go again for another 6 9

00:28:48 months, how the year ends up next year? I don't know, I think it's generally positive. I don't have any reason to think it's

00:28:56 completely off the charts. But I think I

00:28:58 think if we have an overthrow with a Trump victory, I think we're going to have a little bit bigger of a Valley. And then a better of a mountain climb.

00:29:07 But I think there's more concerned long term in a Biden

00:29:10 presidency. So that's definitely, I mean th I don't know about you. And I hate

00:29:14 to throw out all these what? Ifs but I got to tell you, I saw some election fraud, video stuff that I just can't believe that's going on. So I never really, I mean, gosh,

00:29:25 that was a parent fraud to me

00:29:28 and it's 36 to 50,000 votes just in one little county in one little spot where they were counting. That is really concerning how organized that was

00:29:37 not to create too much.

00:29:39 People among our listeners, but that was a scary thing. So those kind of unknown create a lot of

00:29:46 anything could happen moving forward. So I would say managing tax plays and then taking on long term

00:29:53 equity holds for long term positions with companies. You feel are strong. No matter what happens. Good, bad or ugly in between is really the play.

00:30:01 I love how you

00:30:03 covered both sides of the coin there because there was the discussion that we've had on

00:30:07 this and we've kind of got around and around and you just mean you took over what I was going to say for me very nicely. I

00:30:14 won't rehash this point with you, Ben. But I will move on to another that I hear hear. I want to hear your thoughts on

00:30:22 later later we'll see how it all plays out, then I'll say then I'll say told you. So

00:30:28 maybe this year you want to max out your retirement plan, right? I think if you have a four O 1 K out there, if you have a retirement plan set

00:30:39 up. This is your last kind of push that you have to be able to do that. Now, if you're in that IRA

00:30:47 conversation, you do have some time left on the clock. Basically,

00:30:52 until well, usually it's April 15 that have to take a look at the counter because it did,

00:30:56 I think this last year. But, yeah, so if you have that April 15 date ahead of you that's fine. But if you're in that for a one world of

00:31:04 your retirement plan right now you've got a little bit of time to possibly push

00:31:09 through if you can. If you can kind of

00:31:11 move over and have some savings because you haven't been traveling and you haven't been eating out like Ben was talking about. Maybe use a little bit of that

00:31:19 and push off a little bit of that income into your retirement account, so 19 and a half thousand

00:31:27 6,500 dollar catchup is currently where that sits for the 4 1 K world

00:31:32 and if you didn't catch the HSA show that we did, I love this we're just getting so many references back to our podcast and old shows that we not even that old. I mean,

00:31:42 the current. But yeah there's an HSA. If you have an HSA, that is one of our favorite

00:31:51 triple threats in the tax world to take advantage of, yeah, that is something that is just not

00:31:56 given the road that it needs to be on. Honestly, it was a great reminder for me. It was a good show it's kind of something that loses a lot of

00:32:05 it's. Just not sticking forefront in a lot of people's minds. But that is such an amazing program. You can do 7,100 dollars or 8,100 dollars this year. If you're over

00:32:17 55 now normally it's over 50 but in the HSA world's 55 Yeah. Go back to that show. If you haven't listened to that

00:32:22 show, that would definitely be a number one winner for you guys to

00:32:26 reference and like you said, so that's kind of fun that we're going over the shows. But, you know, when it comes to

00:32:31 when it comes to maxing out your retirement plan we've also had shows that you can go back to about

00:32:38 whether a 4 1 K even makes sense and how much you should be putting into a four and and what might be relevant for you.

00:32:43 And it has to do with your tax brackets and your tax levels. And all the different things going on and that would be another show to reference inside of this

00:32:52 and kind of realizing that Hey you never want to miss out on the free money in the 4 1 K. If your employer is

00:32:59 matching your retirement

00:33:00 plan, you better get every penny into there for that match. There is no, if ands or buts you do it if it's a struggle. If it's a stretch. You figure out how to make it

00:33:08 work. That's free money and you'd be silly to miss out. On that, anything above that it's going to be a conversation for you with a

00:33:15 CPA or a financial planner to really if that makes sense both near term and long term for you

00:33:23 folks. This is a good time for us to tell you that you can reach us at five to 6 5 5 1 or info at your money on tap.

00:33:34 Com we're gonna take a quick break. And when we come back we're going to wrap up with a

00:33:41 point. Well

00:33:42 we're going to get there

00:33:43 we're going to be able to get to all the points today we're going to

00:33:46 try. But yeah you're listening on the money on TAB we're going to take a quick break and we're going to talk more about what you can do to wrap up to 20 20

00:33:53 with some successful tax planning. Thank you we'll be right back.

00:34:05 Hi, my name is Ben Bresha one of the cohorts. Some money on

00:34:08 tab. If you have questions when it comes to your retirement and they're, looking for a personalized solution, contact us a great shot Financial Group

00:34:14 in today's volatile stock market. We can help you plan to find your successful retirement solution am I saving enough? Am I saving into the right? I

00:34:22 do my investments match my appetite for risk. Do I have a tax strategy that is going to help me keep more of what I earn, how can I maximize my Social Security

00:34:31 income? If you are like most people, you are getting closer and closer to your retirement and may be wondering if you're taking the right

00:34:37 steps. If you're in retirement, you may be wondering. Am I maximizing my income? While I state and caring for my family.

00:34:44 We talk about all things financial in what we call three dimensional.

00:34:47 Investing putting a plan around your financial future. If you feel that now is the time to start getting the answers to some of these questions for your own

00:34:54 situation. Give us a call up ratio financial 8 5 2 to 6 8 5 5

00:34:59 1 headquartered in pet for New Hampshire. We have offices throughout New England and across the

00:35:04 country. I would love the opportunity to show you how we can help there's absolutely no cost or obligation just to meet with us. And we welcome you to our

00:35:11 office. Call us at 5 2 2 6 8 5 5 1 now back to money on tap with Ben and

00:35:24 welcome back. You listen to the money on

00:35:26 tap. My name is screen I'm here with Ben brace shot and you can reach us at 5 5 to 6 5 5

00:35:33 1 first of all I want to thank you for listening today. Second of all Thank you for calling. We appreciate the feedback we love working with

00:35:40 you. And if you are looking for some direction right now in your

00:35:44 finances and your planning that's what Ben and I do we're financial planners. Bracha Financial Group is the name of our company and we're really

00:35:53 happy and

00:35:54 honored that you give us the opportunity to give some insight to have a

00:35:58 look to see what the lay of the land is here and help you take that next step forward. Giving you the confidence to move

00:36:06 forward is really what the planning world provides in so many ways today we're talking about 20 22 in a wrap on what are some of

00:36:16 the tax opportunities or opportunity to lower

00:36:20 your taxes. The first way I said that might sound like we're gonna try to spend more taxes this

00:36:26 year. And we will get there because maybe maybe that's the right choice,

00:36:30 right? It really depends on what is the landscape what's the big picture for you. But some of these things that we're discussing and going to be coming to

00:36:40 we've had shows about in past

00:36:42 and you can go back and reference some of our money on tap on podcast we're out there in every venue possible. So take a look at whatever works well for you.

00:36:51 And you can find us at money on tap and we've done a lot of shows.

00:36:56 What we're just highlighting

00:36:58 today and we dove into those. We want to really give you

00:37:02 some of the more fine details of how these different pieces work and if they possibly could be working for you. So next up we have

00:37:13 Selfemployed solo for a

00:37:15 taking advantage of that opportunity if that is you or what you have is a solopreneur that you can take advantage of right now.

00:37:25 Yeah,

00:37:26 th th. A Selfemployed side as being self employed ourselves, I mean, this is something that we

00:37:32 are obviously directly engaged in on a daily basis to solo for

00:37:37 ink, though, is something that is only for someone who owns a business by themselves or with their spouse or with the partners. You can't have employees in

00:37:48 this, but it maxes out a for one. Can away you haven't seen before it uses the defined contribution or the fork contribution piece that you can do. But it also has that

00:38:00 tension to find benefit piece that you can also add to it which allows you to get as much as

00:38:06 57,000 dollars in the plan during the year. And if you're over 50 years, old you can get

00:38:14 63,500 I mean, this could be a

00:38:16 massive deduction piece for somebody. Who's had a breakout year and you're by yourself. Or you have your spouse working for,

00:38:23 you know, family members or you just have partners. This is a big item. We do this from time to time for. People are like wait we need to open up a solo for

00:38:31 and make a

00:38:33 contribution that's a quick phone call to us to get that done.

00:38:37 Now being self employed. We talked a little bit about paying bills. Now, number one and so forth but it comes

00:38:43 to business expenses. This is the number one play where you can

00:38:47 tear. What you see potentially in the horizon versus what you see in the past. If you don't have a lot of

00:38:53 income, pushing expenses into this year may not really be a great move. But if you had a breakout here,

00:39:01 we buy our computers at the end of the year. We look for the Black Friday deals. We look for all of

00:39:07 that. But that's where we really stage. A lot of our expenses is trying to figure out which year we should buy them in. And when you get to the end of the year,

00:39:14 you know you've got two abilities to choose which year it is is you get to that end of the December and even right after Christmas there's huge, huge

00:39:22 sales. Huge technology sales things that didn't sell next on our list. We have donor advised funds here now we've done a show on this too.

00:39:33 We show on this recently as well. But you know, Seth, probably out of any year ever to do a donor. Advised fund it would be this

00:39:43 year. This would be the year of all years to consider doing a donor advised fund for a couple reasons and I'm really just going to jump

00:39:53 into potentially a Biden

00:39:56 presidency. And what could happen here in the fact that

00:40:01 he's going to change a lot of the charitable stuff where if you're making over

00:40:05 400,000 dollars. And that sounds like an astronomical amount of money. But when you come in a self employed person

00:40:10 and companies and this that the other thing I could really hit you hard. Normally you

00:40:18 get to itemize your deductions to

00:40:22 37% to 30% of your income over 400,000 Biden was to reduce that to

00:40:29 28% now that is a very large, large hit. So what that would do is if you were going to give a hundred thousand dollars to children's hospital for

00:40:38 instance, normally you get 37,000 dollar

00:40:42 savings

00:40:44 that's a pretty good

00:40:46 benefit. But now I would only be

00:40:47 28,000 that just gives you kind of a real hit on giving the same amount in a year over year. Now, when it comes to donor advised funds and the fact that you can

00:40:56 it's like a hundred thousand dollars well, if you could wrap up a bunch of your charitable contributions all in this year and then break them

00:41:05 out with the donor advised fund. If you go back to our show. You can literally say Hey I'm on. I want to give

00:41:12 33,333 dollars and 33

00:41:13 cents every year. For the next here here's my Hunter

00:41:16 grand and he put it in this year. You get the deduction this year and then the donor advised fund will actually send it out over the next three

00:41:24 years, so it says if giving for three straight years, which is fine, but you've accomplished a much potentially higher deduction. Now that you would have had.

00:41:33 If you do it over the next few years that's a big hit for a lot of

00:41:38 people, especially people who give regularly to charities or churches and so forth and we work with a lot of people that given those in those worlds and

00:41:47 that's a big deal and don't vise funds our way to wrap that up in a very nice bow and allow you to get

00:41:55 that can do your itemized deductions mostly and get better credits across the board. So give us a call. If that's an issue for you or concern?

00:42:04 Yeah, need I say more. We're gonna reference the giving show which was three shows go now where we cover a few of these specific giving strategies because we

00:42:14 love the opportunity at this season to be charitable minded. And if that's you give us a call at five to 6 5 5 info at your money on tap.

00:42:25 Com there's just a much larger conversation there. And one of the things that we talked about here before as well. In his honor list, today

00:42:35 is giving your IRA money to charities. So this has to do with

00:42:42 RMDs don't you love the lingo I'm going to actually tell you what that means to it's called a required minimum distribution. And if you have qualified

00:42:50 money that IRA out there and you hit 72 used to be seven and a half now it's

00:42:56 72 the IRA rules

00:42:59 require you to start taking income off of those to start taking

00:43:04 distributions and that's. Ordinary income is how that comes out of an IRA.

00:43:09 So you're required to take this money. Maybe you don't need that money. But it's going to show up

00:43:14 it's going to show up at the end of the

00:43:16 year for you on that tax, Bill is ordinary income. Well, what you can do is instead of taking that are only taking part of that, if that's

00:43:23 what works well for you? You can take that and you can gift it directly to the charity. So it never shows up as ordinary income in your taxes and it's it's a

00:43:36 wonderful to pass through in a more efficient way for you to be

00:43:42 gifting those money to charities. And in the way that works out on your taxes. Please

00:43:47 connect with your CPA and have them run a couple of different scenarios there for you which

00:43:51 they will do to take a look and see what's the benefit there and it's one of those things that

00:43:57 surprisingly, it just takes a little bit of thought. Takes a little bit of doing now, the key is that that money cannot come to you. It does have to go directly to the

00:44:05 charity. So that's one of those

00:44:08 ABCs that we talk about all the time at this time of year. You know, I think the thing about that is that when you can't get that itemized deduction on the

00:44:17 gift that basically creates the same outcome is that and I think that's probably the easiest way I've heard it

00:44:23 explained. So if you're looking to give to charities and you can't itemize giving through your plans directly to the charities creates the same outcome for you as itemizing

00:44:34 number seven is

00:44:36 considering a Roth conversion. Now, we have talked about this we've done multiple shows on this. And you know,

00:44:43 if you've had a year where it hasn't been fantastic and you're kind of blow your normal income you can take on a little bit of income without feeling too

00:44:54 burdened. Converting your IRA to a Roth is a wonderful

00:44:59 opportunity in the idea. That it will now grow tax free

00:45:04 tax deferred and come out tax free. I mean, once you make this tax payment it's all over you don't have any more taxes on this money as long as you live under the current

00:45:13 loss.

00:45:15 So this is something that's really, really important for people. But one of the big pitfalls, we talk about this in the show

00:45:24 is that you got to pay the taxes

00:45:26 yourself? So it can't come out of the conversion dollars. Like, if you convert 10,000 out of your

00:45:31 IRA. You got to put 10,000 into the Roth.

00:45:34 Now, if you're in a 20% tax bracket you're going to have to come up with 2,000 dollars on your own to pay those taxes, totally separate. So

00:45:42 that's a new financial burden for you.

00:45:44 And we talked about the safety taxes that you and, well we're going to save your taxes long term on this story. So maybe this was the one topic.

00:45:51 But this is something worth considering before your especially if you've had kind of a weird year you've got some savings. You

00:45:58 haven't been spending as much but you're not making as much you might be able to afford that and if we do have a Biden presidency and

00:46:07 they take the Senate and there's all sorts of stuff there that the tax laws change all over the

00:46:12 place taxes are going to go up. They want to repeal the tax, the Trump tax code and that's going to cause everyone's taxes to rise it doesn't matter what

00:46:20 income bracket you're in your taxes are going up all the deductions. All the write offs. All the automatic

00:46:29 things that happen

00:46:31 it's just across the board. Everyone's taxes are going

00:46:33 up.

00:46:34 So a Roth conversion might really be the very best thing for you to do this year. Even if you've had a large gain recently, even if you had a large run

00:46:41 up, I know personally we've talked about doing a Roth conversion

00:46:44 for 6 8 months here. Set with this market being pulled back it's like, hey, listen, this is a great time. I did some Roth

00:46:50 converting two or 3 different times this year. So it's something worth considering

00:46:55 especially especially assets in your IRA that are underwater. Like if you're at a loss for the year.

00:47:01 If you're down let's say you

00:47:02 bought let's say you bought Boeing at 300 dollars and it's trading at low 200 it's still probably a great convertible asset that's something worth considering.

00:47:11 Yeah, the other thing about this is is this can be something that you can do over time as well. I know we took

00:47:19 parts back in March and April had partial conversions at those times. Just taking a look at what that tax code or where we could. But up into that next tax bracket

00:47:31 in having the capital available to go ahead and pay the taxes in this year as

00:47:35 well, but it's not an all or nothing. Folks there's a lot a lot of times it's just one of those things that you want to grab a piece in a part and you move it on over.

00:47:44 But you make sure that you're not putting yourself into a situation. Where

00:47:48 you can't pay those taxes like Ben was talking

00:47:51 about that. You do understand what it is that you are doing here because there's been a lot of people that have just made it a big mistake and had huge

00:47:59 taxable years. So be aware of those things. Okay, I think we're still gonna butt up against topic here.

00:48:06 That is going to be the rap for us on this show today that we've also talked about back in.

00:48:13 Gosh, a couple of months ago. I talked about a Biden versus Trump scenario. And some of the concerns that are out there and trying to

00:48:21 forecast. What changes could possibly come down the road here

00:48:26 with the potential to be a Biden presidency or

00:48:30 a Democratic majority in the Senate, we don't know still that's kind of where everything is at in. Taking a look at

00:48:38 those implications is where we're at on number three capital gains tax. Yeah, oh,

00:48:46 this is bad news. This is bad news. After all that appreciation stuff, I hate to drop the show on some bad news. Bad over here when it comes to capital gains tax

00:48:57 it's 2,020 were one

00:49:01 where basically what happens or what Biden wants to have happen if he's president is to move to your income tax bracket, essentially

00:49:10 specifically and very directly for people over a million dollars of income. Now, that probably excludes a large volume of our

00:49:18 listeners, but it's not just that. He wants to change the capital gains rate all over the place.

00:49:23 But very specifically, he has said that it was over a million bucks. He wanted to go 20% capital gains rate to

00:49:30 39.6 that's almost doubling on capital gains. Let me tell you why that's a bad hit? Why that's bad for our stock

00:49:37 market. What that does is that potentially

00:49:40 creates a lot of concern about where you invest your money. And looking for longer holding assets to kind of outweigh the gains tax rate.

00:49:49 People may not own things other than just

00:49:52 pure blue chip value stocks that sit there

00:49:55 and do what they do. So that might make those stocks rise because there's more holding. But more people afraid to buy and sell and

00:50:02 transact higher capital gains rate is problematic.

00:50:05 Usually, this is a big issue and it's going cause a lot of different strategies around how people invest. If this actually gets through and I would tell you that

00:50:15 looking at your 20 20 year, you may want to kind of assure yourself

00:50:21 of your 15 or

00:50:23 20% capital gain and sell some of those long term assets and lock in a cost basis. So that now, if you bought a stock for say, 10,000

00:50:33 dollars and let's say it's worth 20,000 dollars, if you sell that today you're going to pay maybe you're at the 10

00:50:40 tax rate of the gain of the 10,000 bucks. So you spend 2,000 dollars but moving forward, your stock is

00:50:49 now locked in your values. Locked in at its current tax rate, you have a new cost basis. And now you

00:50:54 have net 18,000 dollars that will never get taxed again. And now maybe you move forward with that and say, well,

00:51:00 I was able to lock in that tax rate and the rest of it's going to be taxed on whatever tax rate. Moving

00:51:05 forward and that's one of the reasons why I think we might even see a pull back at the end of this year. So right at the end of the month.

00:51:12 Is this particular reason

00:51:15 alone? Yeah that's definitely one of the things that we take a look at right now and understanding those market pieces. But what about some of these other assets that

00:51:24 people accumulate just through business and transitioning businesses and that's one of the parts that

00:51:33 we're seeing as well. Like, for instance let's just say that you have a daughter and you're going to sell your car dealership to her and

00:51:43 March eighteenth is her birthday and that's when you were planning on making that transition,

00:51:48 you might consider moving that up to this year. If it all possible or if you happen to be

00:51:54 CPA and have a

00:51:56 schedule to retire. May you might want to put that buy out to the partners to

00:52:03 this time of year and this is something that is hopefully been in the works and planned. And all the numbers are there and understood,

00:52:10 because that's how planning works and it's a big decision. And those are big

00:52:14 numbers to be pushing through. But those are the kind of considerations folks that we're talking about right now.

00:52:20 But there's just an unknown. What we don't know is we don't know the one and the two, but that's one of the things

00:52:26 that taking a look at the big picture and going through this planning process really helps accomplish for

00:52:30 you. And so if you're not having the conversation. Or if you haven't hopefully we're getting this to you in

00:52:36 time. Hey, we want to make sure that you have a little bit of time to pull the lever here and make sure that you go through the

00:52:42 process it's a busy time of year for Ben and I. So give us a call at

00:52:47 6 5 5 1 or info at your money on tap com we're here to help you the best way we possibly can, but

00:52:55 yeah that's what it is. This is the 20 20 last minute tax moves. That you guys can be taken advantage of Ben. What else do you

00:53:01 have that's it if everyone have a wonderful day and we'll talk to you next week.

00:53:06 Thank you you've been listening to money on tap. You can reach us at 5 5 2 to 6 8 5 5 1 or info at your money on tap

00:53:14 com we've enjoyed the show today we've been grateful for you for joining

00:53:20 us. We thank you for calling us and giving us an opportunity to speak into your life and be trusted. Advisors with you that's something we hold really sacred

00:53:31 and we want to appreciate you for that. So thank you so much. And we just

00:53:35 also want to appreciate you for allowing us to be who we are and have fun. What we do on a daily basis which is financial

00:53:44 planning. You can also find us at Facebook we're at a three D

00:53:50 investing. We are also on Twitter at BFG underscore LLC

00:53:56 and as always, you can also find this at your money on tap.

00:54:01 Com, thanks for listening. Thanks for liking our podcast. We appreciate you and we can't wait to make it a great day and a great life with you here at money on

00:54:12 tap. The views expressed are not necessarily the opinion of this radio state and should not be construed directly or

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00:54:24 invested. No strategy product, material or tool mentioned in a sure of profit or protect against loss. Please note that individual situations can vary. Therefore. The

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00:55:18 well, bye.

00:00:00 Welcome to money on tap

00:00:15 money on tap your personal finance

00:00:17 headquarters where we bring out the professional experience. So fine, what we call three dimensional investing utilizing insurance brokerage and Seabased planning

00:00:26 that's what we do on this show. We look at all sides of the issues. We bring a fully independent planning perspective to the table.

00:00:36 Welcome to money on tap. My name is South Crossman in bed Bracha glad to have you aboard today, folks it's a big

00:00:42 one. This is the show that we've been talking about for. Well, the last four years. Pretty much if you're

00:00:51 wondering what is this all been leading up to? Well, it is today it's here and now you can reach us at 8 5 5 2 2 6 8 5 5 1 or info at your money on top.

00:01:01 Com why why would I say today is the day for this show. Well,

00:01:06 it on your phone. Get on your laptop, your bad whatever. And just take a look at the news because the do hit

00:01:15 30,000 the Dow 30 folks hit 30,000

00:01:19 we're going to talk about that more coming up beyond that real

00:01:25 estate, right? Real estate has been hit so it's been hit hard as a sector in the investment world.

00:01:35 That's just been one of the pandemic stories that we've been watching and following. But today we want to ask you? The question we're going to bring on an

00:01:44 expert, somebody I know pretty well. Then this pretty well, you know her much better than I do Seth

00:01:50 and yeah we're bringing on SES wife Kira Crossman, who is a CCI. She is a certified commercial investment

00:01:59 member which is basically

00:02:02 she is an

00:02:03 expert in commercial investment, real

00:02:05 estate and I'm pretty excited. I mean that's got a pretty key connection here and it's kind of fun to have her coming on a little bit later,

00:02:12 but yeah we're going to talk a little bit about real estate. I mean, the do is hit 30,000 and everybody's like stock stock stock. But real estate has been just

00:02:21 rushed through this pandemic. And the question

00:02:24 is are you taking notice?

00:02:26 Are you evaluating opportunities that might be staring you right in the face and just ignoring them because you might be afraid of going back to work. So

00:02:35 what's next, pretty loaded question there. But it's a good lead in for us because now it's time for money in the news.

00:02:51 So the do has hit 30,000

00:02:54 November 10 or 20 20

00:02:56 the Dow hits

00:02:57 it. We called it here on the show, a while back. It was four or 5 months ago. We talked about how we felt that that was going to hit what

00:03:03 30,000 before the end of this year, beginning of

00:03:06 next. Yeah,

00:03:07 I got to jump in right

00:03:09 there. That was actually back in June June 20 fifth that we released that show real estate, your number one hard asset. Pretty funny that we're doing a real estate show

00:03:15 today. And we were talking about the Dow 30 hey, Roger, can you please grab that and have a listen to this,

00:03:23 Ben. And I guess what we called. Oh, I don't know we're going on eight months ago. Maybe. I think we call the Dow at 30

00:03:30 Yeah,

00:03:31 no, no. I think I think the do if we get past the corona virus here, I think the Dow hits

00:03:37 30,000 end of this year, beginning of next. I still think we have because the thing is, is that the Fed has poured and the government supports so much

00:03:44 money. Into our economy, probably more than I don't even know if it's more it's just so much money to that offsets. Everything we're not spending not

00:03:53 doing. So does the do it remember? The Dow is only the 30 largest companies in the US. So, I mean it's not like we're talking about the S AMP P 500 and the 500 large

00:04:02 caps we're talking about 30 companies. So we based progress on such a small

00:04:09 point in the marketplace as a whole. But when you talk about except just to even compound on that. Campbell

00:04:15 Harvey he's a professor of finance at the focus school at Duke University. He predicted a recession for early 20 20 early 21 he's got

00:04:25 basically a perfect record for calling recessions and his betting. This one will be over by the end of 20 20 I like this

00:04:33 guy we've been talking about this because, honestly, it could not hit

00:04:38 30,000 because ultimately with all the money and all the stimulus and all the stuff. I mean, the GDP and the economy was

00:04:44 skyrocketing. We were heading there to begin with. And then we had this crushing pandemic on our

00:04:49 economy. And when the is

00:04:52 it we knew that just the rebound off of that alone had to send it in that direction. It just had to be there and that is something that we have been calculating

00:05:03 inside our story for a long time. But what is the do? We did the Dow 30 show. We talked about it. It's 30 companies it's 30 stocks

00:05:12 companies move in and out. Exxon was kicked out this

00:05:17 year. Who else was kicked out? Somebody else was kicked out. So

00:05:22 they're rotating camera

00:05:26 on radio

00:05:29 and we have

00:05:32 go through this experience of always figuring out that the

00:05:35 do if it's up the markets doing. Great problem is is the Dow was only 30 stocks and we talk about that all the time it's only 30 companies it's only 30 stocks and

00:05:46 it's chosen the SMP board as well as

00:05:50 the Wall Street Journal editors, which that goes back to the creation of the DOL, which was

00:05:57 which brought originally the 12

00:06:01 smokestack stocks. And it was the Wall Street Journal's editor that created this Indice to really try to

00:06:08 describe what's going on in the market. And then it grew to 30 and it's remained at 30

00:06:14 or pretty much the life of the index. The majority of the but the names have changed

00:06:22 and some of the methodology around it has changed because it's a price weighted

00:06:27 Indicee not a market weighted into see. So, for instance, Apple is the largest stock that's in

00:06:33 the

00:06:35 biggest company. Biggest company, yeah. But when they did a four to 1 split it changed. How the do was priced because they lowered the price of the stock.

00:06:48 So, anyway, so you have

00:06:50 a really kind of interesting methodology. So is it really gives us a

00:06:56 huge bellwether to what's going on in the economy

00:07:00 because that would probably be more likely. The SMP 500 but it's a lot of fun and it's historic and it's does tell us some interesting things here. Because why

00:07:13 is technology a defensive stock when the and

00:07:18 how does that

00:07:20 happen? No, that's a great

00:07:21 point. And, you know, the thing is is the weird thing about the DOS. It doesn't include utilities or real estate. So I'm really excited to have one of those

00:07:28 sectors participating in today's show the real estate piece, but it's the it's

00:07:35 30 large US companies that's how it's described it's not the largest

00:07:40 even and so it's kind of interesting because Exxon was kicked out.

00:07:44 So they have the exclusive right to just say, you're gone. And it doesn't really have a waiting on that, but what is interesting is how

00:07:53 when sense was saying it's a price weighted versus a market value. What they're saying is is the price of the

00:08:00 stock of each individual stock, no matter how big the company is is how they figure it out. So basically, the largest price

00:08:08 stock gets more attention when figuring out how the down moves

00:08:13 where in the S AMP P 500 the value of the company becomes more relevant. And so they're totally different and what's interesting is

00:08:23 they have developed the Dow Devisor which is basically this thing that looks like

00:08:29 Pi and it's like

00:08:32 7 5 6 5 3 3 I think they're off by one millionth of a decimal on this, but I'm not sure

00:08:41 because I just plugged that in. And I came up. I didn't come up with 30,000 Yeah, I didn't either and so

00:08:47 but the thing is is they have this it's designed to absorb stock split and deal with all of those types of things in the Divisor

00:08:56 and when they rotate these companies, like when Apple did it split. It went from the largest price stock

00:09:03 to on the bottom of the

00:09:05 ladder and instantly, if Apple doesn't climb,

00:09:08 you know it doesn't mean anything anymore. But before as Apple was shooting up, it was carrying the do all the way up to the top various times was Boeing.

00:09:18 But for instance that's a story that we know pretty well with a 7 37 Max and

00:09:25 crash. I burned there. Yeah, but just right before that

00:09:32 right before that, it was on a terror. And it was, it was really pushing that the numbers be the Dow. And that was part of the story of the do,

00:09:43 here we are. How long did it take us to get from 20,000 because we did a show on the do 20,000

00:09:54 where were we at 20 16 when we were talking about those numbers. And in the context of four years,

00:10:01 we've climbed another 10,000

00:10:06 and how long did it take for that previous thousand or 10,000 at the 10 10 to 20,000 level, which was a doubling of the doubt, it was 18 years.

00:10:17 The relationship. The correlation is not well, it isn't precise. Because a doubling doesn't equal a third

00:10:27 right after. So anyway it's been moving really, really fast and it's an exceptional thing to take a look at,

00:10:35 yeah that's the thing. Are we talking about a 40,000 set? Is that where we're going now?

00:10:43 I don't know we'll see we're in the middle of the lock down again.

00:10:48 Yeah, how long will it take for these companies to again

00:10:54 push? Well, another 10,000 is less than the 10 times of previously.

00:11:01 So she would be talking about a 60,000 because that's

00:11:08 that's only a couple couple decades away,

00:11:13 right? Well that's a tough one to call. But it's gonna be a fun show to,

00:11:18 yeah. I think ultimately what our point is here today is that we've hit a historic monumental event. And this is something that

00:11:26 everyone will remember it is a day that will not go

00:11:33 Unremembered it has been focused on is something bigger than do. 20 has been one of these things that people have been talking about is 40 coming around the

00:11:41 corner we're not ready to call that. But I do think that we have a lot to really iron out our economy and all the things that are going on

00:11:50 and how this pandemic kind of shifts out. I mean there's still election

00:11:54 questions and all sorts of different pieces. That are happening in our world around us. And I think we need to get to a better

00:12:00 place before we can really do that. And, you know, when you hit all time highs everyone's excited and that's what I usually say. Sometimes you sell the news.

00:12:13 And that's when you really want to start looking

00:12:17 at how do I be

00:12:19 patient? Take

00:12:20 profits, maybe enjoy. What I've made and pull back a little bit? Not necessarily a bad conservative story after we've come out of a pandemic and made some real

00:12:29 real huge numbers this year. Yeah, if you were to take a look at

00:12:35 what is precious to us about this. Now is the 18 96 to 10

00:12:41 we just don't have any

00:12:44 other it is he out there that takes us so far back if we were to take a look at what has the do come through it's the Great Depression. It's World War

00:12:55 two, the cold war. Com Spanish blue 9 11

00:13:01 2,008 a cove.

00:13:04 And it really is an exceptional story to be where we are today. Post

00:13:11 hopefully on the back side of a

00:13:14 pandemic with all the news that we're seeing

00:13:17 currently with the virus news and there's a lot of hope out there there's just a ton of hope out there and it's a great story for us to be able to talk about

00:13:26 today and have some fun with as well. Yeah, and there's a lot of people listening to the show saying, hey, I kind of wish I was living somewhere else right now

00:13:37 I found this article of blue Berg. And as we as we experience, the holidays

00:13:46 are thankful for Thanksgiving. And all the things that has brought to us, a lot of people are probably saying to themselves. I wish I was living somewhere else.

00:13:53 I wish I was in a different state. A different country, which I wasn't dealing with

00:13:58 this. And so we have an article here quickly we're just going to spend two minutes on it

00:14:03 and sometimes perspective is really good, but right

00:14:06 now, if you were living in New Zealand, it is considered the number one place to live in relation to covet. Not bad number one on the list now, this list shows

00:14:19 53 countries here and the United States is number

00:14:23 18 so it could be worse. And I mean, things places that I would think would be good. Our way below the list. I mean, you've got Ireland at 20 and you got UK at 28 you

00:14:32 got Austria at 36 and you got France at 45

00:14:37 but

00:14:39 honestly I'm looking at this list set. And the Bloomberg article from Rachel Chang Ginsen hung and Kevin

00:14:48 barley it's a little bit biased because

00:14:51 Singapore has a zero test positive rate I'm not sure I'm not sure that they're reporting correctly. What do you think? Yeah, I saw that.

00:14:59 That was an interesting find, I think I came across my desk

00:15:04 yesterday. I was thinking about New Zealand. Always being a great place to go. Of course, of course, I don't care what time of year you're talking about

00:15:13 everybody that I've

00:15:14 that I've ever talked to said he this is a bucket, less place. You have to put it on and

00:15:20 don't even think that two weeks is going to cut it like you go there and you need to figure out a way to stay a year.

00:15:27 Yeah, of course. But I'm actually shocked

00:15:32 that Hong Kong and Singapore which are considered better the US have. I mean, Hong Kong says it's point 1%

00:15:40 test positive rate, I mean that's crazy that's actually pretty

00:15:45 phenomenal, but they're not really high on the list New Zealand here. I mean there's a zero. But the resilient score is higher,

00:15:52 but you could be in Hong Kong right now or Singapore. Not not connecting with any covet. I think they're lying to us.

00:16:03 I'm gonna go back and talk about the do

00:16:08 you guys. This

00:16:09 is a fun part of our show. We hope you enjoy it it's money in the news. We are going to come back after we take a quick break. You can reach us at 8 5 5 to

00:16:17 6 8 5 5 1 or info at your money on tap com when we come back, ladies and gentlemen, it is a crust man CCI

00:16:29 and that is my better half and we're gonna just we're going to hand the mic over to her and we're going to talk about real estate as an asset

00:16:39 as an asset class right now we're going to have a gonna. Have a lot of fun, definitely. Stick around,

00:16:49 hi. My name is Ben Bresha one of the cool. Some money on

00:16:52 tab. If you have questions when it comes to your retirement and they're looking for a personalized

00:16:56 solution. Contact us a Grashof Financial Group

00:16:58 in today's fallen stock market. We can help you plan to find your successful retirement solution am I saving enough? Am I saving into the right

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00:18:00 now back to money on tap with Ben and sat.

00:18:05 Welcome back you're listening money on tap. You can reach us at 8 5 5 to 2 6 8 5 5 1 or info at your money on tap.

00:18:16 Com folks, it has been a rollercoaster out there. We've talked about the Dow 30 hitting

00:18:23 30,000 and

00:18:25 to keep it fair and balanced there's a sector that's missing from the Dow that's real estate. And in order to represent that today, I'm so

00:18:34 excited to be able to introduce you to

00:18:38 the lovely. The incredible, the amazing cure, a Crossman CCI and I happen to have the honor of being her husband

00:18:48 and without further ado we're going to talk about real estate. Okay, hard that's a hard asset

00:18:56 dirt. You got

00:18:58 buildings you've got construction you've got so many different places that you can really go with this

00:19:03 and it's really fun to have you with us today. Kara, thank you. Thank you for having me I'm excited to be in here. Well, this is, as I said earlier, a better hole

00:19:13 people that better half. But I think it's better hole. So we're gonna go with that

00:19:17 and I get to ask her a lot of questions today I'm going to take a little bit of a lead here. Take the bias that assess approach

00:19:24 here

00:19:25 but let's first start off. Tell us a little bit about yourself. We know

00:19:29 you're a

00:19:30 scam. We know you're an expert in commercial real

00:19:32 estate tells little bit

00:19:34 about

00:19:34 how you got into real estate. Just to give people a little bit of

00:19:37 background on how long you've been in this and a little bit about your company? Well, I kind of tease that I've been real estate, my whole life because my dad is a

00:19:45 incredibly talented and well known planning

00:19:49 consultant and he started his own consulting business in the early eighties during the recession. When the engineer he was working for Reich laid

00:19:57 off. Nothing was

00:19:58 happening

00:19:59 and he blew it up, I mean, he was just amazing. He would go out and stop by people's property and just say hey, you

00:20:05 know I've got this developer that I think would really like the project like this. Do you have any interest in selling?

00:20:11 So, of course, it was any time I was in the car with him. He, oh, I gotta stop and talk to this person. Real quick

00:20:17 and I loved it. I watched him put together land

00:20:20 deals so many times in people's living

00:20:23 room as a little girl. And of course, all growing up. So

00:20:26 eventually, as a family business for a while and we all help my sister type, I would clean the office, I filed and I got

00:20:34 around the land development. I mean, he started an engineering for basically it's good from a consulting

00:20:40 business. And so we were all involved and I just heard the language for years and years. And so it's just been around it forever

00:20:48 and in high school, I worked as a

00:20:51 surveyor on his surveying crew and then taught myself AutoCAD so I really

00:20:57 learned things kind of backwards or from the ground up. Literally the engineering and the planning and the

00:21:03 surveying, I read maps in new construction from a very young.

00:21:07 And eventually I went to college and went back to work for him. And that's a project manager, so they called me a plat pusher. So when they would

00:21:18 design subdivisions there's a partition or subdivision plot map. And I would get it through entitlement process and approved.

00:21:29 So that was my start

00:21:32 eventually. She sounds like there should be some child labor laws involved here.

00:21:37 Well, I was. I just loved it. I mean I loved watching the excavation Cruise. I got to work. Sometimes they would let me get up there. Play with

00:21:46 the track and dig and it was just awesome, I loved it. So I got my license. I did very well.

00:21:54 Knew exactly what to do. Watch from after watching my dad all these years. So I just would go, I'm just gonna get listings and I would just go get that's

00:22:03 approved. And then I would end up selling the homes or

00:22:07 anything that was built on it and

00:22:10 it was kind of a rural area where I was at Redmond Oregon. So Bob Mayfield was the managing broker and he taught

00:22:17 me that I had to learn how to do everything if I was going to survive in that area. So I learned how to do everything it was

00:22:24 from mobile homes on rural property to partial buildings,

00:22:29 managing properties leasing everything, new construction

00:22:33 sales. And so I did really well there for a while. And

00:22:36 then I ended up needing to take care of my grandpa and in Sacramento. So I moved there and I got into commercial real estate there. I was at

00:22:43 it and that was great I did a lot of tint rep, and it was kind of sink or swim there wasn't

00:22:50 training.

00:22:51 I did end up going to LA after that. I worked at a small boutique investment, real estate firm and sold

00:22:59 multifamily and I would do a lot of exchanges in to single tenant triple net and so learned all about that and was there for a few years. And then I came back home

00:23:10 to the Portland area and immediately ran into set he immediately proposed.

00:23:18 So I was here to

00:23:21 stay and he did come from the wire house. So what can I say?

00:23:28 We were married seven months after a first date to the day coffee is coffees for closers folks

00:23:37 and

00:23:38 I didn't really want to go work at the corporate type

00:23:43 style

00:23:44 firms.

00:23:45 Because there you have to be there. Six or 7 a M to seven P M to get any respect, especially if you're not established in that

00:23:53 area. Regardless if you have experience or not.

00:23:56 And so I actually went to work at the little local residential firm because the owner sold us our house when we got married and he's a great guy.

00:24:08 So from there

00:24:10 I just

00:24:11 I just don't want the pressure because I had a live one. And so it worked out really well because I just started putting LAN deals together.

00:24:17 Again and doing commercial and the residential people would refer the business to me. And to this day, the owner, a lot of those people still even

00:24:24 though I started my own company. Eventually they still refer to all their commercial to me. So four years ago, I started for Multi group with a partner

00:24:34 and I ended up buying them out a couple years later and just

00:24:38 got a coach and been building a team. And one of the goals was always for years. Just never got it done, I wanted to get my CCM

00:24:47 designation. And so last year, I decided I was going to do it and I got it done in five

00:24:53 months, which is unheard

00:24:56 of. I mean, I heard one. I

00:24:58 know one lady in San Antonio. That did it in six

00:25:02 months. But I got it all done. In five months in in my portfolio and then coat hit. So I couldn't take my exam that I did end up getting to take it in August

00:25:10 and it's been a but it's been amazing. It was such a good experience for me. And for those of you, that don't know what CCM is. It's a certified commercial investment

00:25:20 member it's been established in 19 69 by the National Association of Realtors. Because there isn't two

00:25:29 licenses there isn't a residential in a commercial license and the real estate licenses are typically

00:25:35 more geared toward residential when you're learning the education. So they establish this as kind of the global standard for the

00:25:45 the base for practicing commercial real estate and it's just a phenomenal program. Yeah, that is

00:25:52 a good story. And you know what? This is why we have you on here. Is because we want to talk about

00:25:58 commercial investment real estate and it sounds like we've got somebody with me. Many many years of great

00:26:05 looking at listening to having grown up in a family business, I can appreciate a lot of

00:26:10 the nuances of learning things at a much younger age than probably most people. Have you probably had your CC Im in

00:26:16 theory long before you took the class, which is why you did it so quickly.

00:26:21 I had a lot of parts to it. But it's kind of funny when I look back. Okay, so I got licensed in 99

00:26:29 so it's been 22 years that I've been actually in real estate as a

00:26:33 broker, but I remember

00:26:35 I'm looking back when I was dialing for dollars at the investment firm. Trying to figure out how to get one of these listings pitch for my finger broker

00:26:44 and not really knowing what I'm talking about with you. I understood development so well. And I understood a little bit about 10 at rat but I

00:26:51 still didn't understand cash flow analysis. I still didn't understand time value of money. It just didn't make all that much

00:26:57 sense. And so I would just kind of fake it. They knew I was faking it. But I was really trying hard.

00:27:03 Basically you're a bird Docker you're gonna go try to find them deal here, this one. God here's this one

00:27:08 and that's not really a

00:27:11 consultant. But a lot of brokers have to start that way to learn. And so it was actually the clients that taught me things it's really interesting. They would just say

00:27:18 okay I'm sitting down to try to be their broker and they're showing me Oh, how do I analyze property?

00:27:25 So it was interesting. I I picked up a lot of it. And I think it's probably why I was able to get through the curriculum in five months

00:27:34 because I'm pretty familiar with all of these things. It just was great to learn how to actually calculate it. And how many times I tried to create a

00:27:41 spreadsheet that was just so inferior compared to what a spreadsheets are so

00:27:49 today, what we really want to try to grasp and there's a lot of people that ask us this question and I have people come in on a regular basis that say hey,

00:27:59 what do you think

00:28:00 about real estate investments and we have lots of securities based real estate investments that we talked to people about.

00:28:05 And we present for people that want kind of a hands

00:28:09 off approach to a real estate transaction.

00:28:12 But there's a lot of people out there that say I have a friend that owns a multi family or an

00:28:17 office or something like that. And they seem to be doing really, really well. And I wonder if I'm that person

00:28:23 tell us, what are you seeing? First of all, in the commercial real estate with the pandemic.

00:28:29 And

00:28:31 is this a good time to be looking at real estate to purchase? And if so,

00:28:36 which demographic of real estate, is there some to watch out for? What are people looking at these days it's

00:28:41 interesting there's so much going on and things. A lot of the data isn't necessarily in that would be reliable because of the time. So

00:28:51 in residential and multifamily investment. I mean, I consider both of those sort of residential because of the

00:28:58 user I know in the Portland area we're they're still receiving it. And I don't know if it's because of the stimulus. Or if

00:29:05 there's not that many people that are losing their jobs because they are essentially services, but

00:29:11 they're not doing badly. And that's a great point. I mean that's something that I had

00:29:16 it is really hard to figure out especially. I think in the retail space where people may not even be shopping, that they've got

00:29:23 loans and ID on you. Just don't know where the money's coming from? That's a great point. Yeah, so I think

00