Hosts: Nancy Hecht, CFP®, AIF®, CPA and Joe Bert, CFP®, AIF®
Hello, everybody, and welcome to another addition of On the Money with Certified Financial Group here on News 96.5 WDBO Ask the Experts weekend. We are taking your phone calls at 844-220-0965, with Joe Bert and Nancy Hecht, from the Certified Financial Group.
Good morning.
Good morning, how are you today?
Good, great.
Beautiful Saturday morning, staying warm.
Usually.
<Inaudible> over there with her coat on.
Wow, I mean it is — <Inaudible> snowflakes went on on my thermostat in my car today —
Oh did it?
— and like the last two days.
So it comes up like little snowflakes when it gets underneath like 45?
Yes, 38 the last two mornings when I was going to work.
I like a little refreshing —
No.
<Inaudible> refreshing thing for me. Getting too hot.
I’m always hot. I don’t know if you’re like that, Joe?
It gets below 50, that’s cold for me.
Okay.
It’s just me. My wife tells me it’s just me, because I will pull the covers off when it’s 50 degrees in the bedroom, but put the fan back on, no. Anyway, we are here to <Inaudible> your phone calls and anything that has to do with <Inaudible>, with the weather. We’re going to talk about the weather this morning, how cool it is <Inaudible>
We’re going to talk about those things that might be on your mind, all those things you have to make decisions on, forced to make decisions on, trying to make decisions on. What do we do with our money? We worked hard all our life. You accumulate some capital. Now we have to turn that money into income to supplement our Social Security, so we can enjoy what they call those golden years. Unfortunately, we go through life doing some of this, doing some of that, and wake up one day 55 years old, and find we have a collection of financial accidents. How do we straighten this stuff out? Nancy and I are here to take your call this morning. As we say on Monday through Friday at our firm we work for a fee, but on Saturday morning we do it for free. If you have any questions regarding your personal finances and how they might affect decisions that you have to make about stocks, bonds, mutual funds, real estate, long-term healthcare, annuities, life insurance, revere <?> mortgages. <Inaudible> here. So pick up the phone. Lines are absolutely wide open, wide open I say.
That’s it.
All you have to do is dial 407 — I’m sorry — 844-220-0965. We don’t have the 407 number anymore – 844-220-0965, real simple. We also have the text machine up and running as well, 21232. Just keep it to about 160 <?> characters. We’ve got it up on the big monitor here. Joe and Nancy can see it. So that when it comes it, we can see it, and we can answer your question right here on the radio today. So I have a question for both of you. I was talking to a buddy, and we were talking about retirement. He said, you’re already thinking about retirement? I said I am. I said well I work now with the Certified Financial Group on the <?> radio show. Where are they? They’re over on Douglason <?>. Who are they affiliated with? I said, oh, they’re not, they’re independent. He said, well, what are they certified for? I said, you know what, that might be a good question. I will ask them on the on air. I know Joe you like to answer this question.
What are we certified for?
Yeah, certified, what does certified come from for Certified Financial Group.
From us, all of the planners are certified financial planners. We’re not financial advisor. We’re not registered representatives. We’re all CFPs. We’ve all had to go through rigorous education, and testing, and ongoing continuing educate, based predominately on being independent, putting the client first, a code of ethics, and being investment fiduciaries. We’re hearing a lot about the word fiduciary, and are you a fiduciary. A lot of commercials in reference to this. We have all had to be fiduciaries, putting our client before ourselves and any agenda that we may have or some investment company would like us to have, since we have all been licensed. So this is nothing new to us. The world is catching up to us as certified financial planners. So it means greater education and responsibility.
As you said, anybody can call themselves an financial advisor, financial planner, investment consultant, yadda, yadda, yadda, yadda. One of the things that we distinguished ourselves by is we had recently been certified by the Center for Fiduciary Excellence as a CFEC <?> certified firm. Less than 1% of the investment advisory firms in the country are CFEC certified. In order to get that designation, we had to complete a questionnaire of 120 pages. All of our planners were interviewed. They came to our office. They did a thorough audit of our firm, everything down to the security cameras that we have around the building, the security that we have built into our computer systems, the firewalls that we have, how we handle paperwork, all that stuff. It was extremely rigorous. We are proud to say that we are as CFEC certified firm. If you want more information about all that stuff, all you have to do is go to our website. That’s financialgroup.com. It will tell you everything you need to know.
Especially the question I hear your spots <?> all day on News 96.5, what’s the difference between broker and fiduciary? We get that question answer over there at the website. But we are here on the phone <?>, on radio today, taking your calls, 844-220-0965. Let’s get started. Let’s talk to Tom in Veara. Tom, go ahead your on with Certified Financial Group.
Morning.
Hey, good morning everyone.
Good morning.
What’s up?
Always love listening to you guys on Saturday morning. You provide a wealth a knowledge. Today I have a question for you. I’m going to be retiring in about six years and I’m going to move to Colorado. The land is already bought and paid for. Pretty much everything I need over there is pretty much ready to go. I’m going to be about $100,000 short from the home I sell here and the home I have built out there. I’m wondering where is the best place for me to get that 100,000, or should I just finance it? I have a pension. I have a 401(k). Would it be okay to take from either one of those two, or just finance the home?
Depending on what rates are in six years — first blush, irregardless of what rates are, I think taking a mortgage might be better than raiding your tax-qualified plans. If you have to pull $100,000 out of your 401(k) or you pension, and your adding $100,000 to whatever your taxable income is at that time. Granted it’ll be <Inaudible> less than it is now. However, you’re pulling this tax deferred money out that’s <Inaudible> in six years you’ll be how old, Tom?
63.
Okay, alright. So if you’re 63, chances are good you’re going to live 20 years or more into retirement. Knocking $100,000 off of your retirement nest egg from the beginning is going to have a huge impact. You’re going to lose the time value of that money working for you on a tax-deferred basis. Aside from the fact that it’s going to just be taxable. It’s going to cost you a lot in time. It’s going to cost you a lot in taxes. My vote is, regardless of what rates might be in six years, take a mortgage. Or, you could also try right now building up a slush fund, as well as saving for your retirement, to try and pay down or pay for that new home.
Tom, what’s the value of the home to project to build?
The value I predict <?>, and we’re looking six years out, probably about 350.
350, and you’re 100 short?
Yes <Inaudible>
<Inaudible> paying attention.
Okay, alright. Nancy is 100% right. What you don’t want to do is raise your retirement account and pay taxes on that money in a lump sum. Worst case you could put a mortgage on it and then look at your tax situation, and then bleed <?> money out of your 401(k), to keep you in a 15% tax bracket. But who knows what the tax laws are going to be in six years.
Right.
Generally speaking, if you had to do that today, we would not advise you cashing out lump sum money out of your retirement account to put in your home. Because now you’ve taken a liquid asset and you’ve turned it into something illiquid. Which gets me to the next point. What you may want to look at is financing some of that and using the reverse mortgage. If you expect to stay in the home for the rest of your life, it’s a way to pay for that home, to make up that difference, and not have a mortgage payment, and to also preserve the money that you have in your 401(k) and your pension plan. When the time goes, what you want to do is sit down with a certified public accountant, and ask him or her to design a plan for you, to answer that question specifically. Because, once you do it and you sign all those papers, what you don’t want to do is say, gee, I wish I would have known. So that’s where planning is important, and that’s what we would suggest that you do.
Thank you. Great advice.
Alright, Tom, thanks for the call. Good luck <Inaudible>
Tom, thanks so much. <Inaudible> 844-220-0965, 844-220-0965. Or the text machine is up and running as well – 21232. We’re talking to Joe Bert and Nancy Hecht, Certified Financial Group. We are <Inaudible> tomorrow. They have a question for you that we want to be asking here. This one’s for you, Nancy.
Okay.
You’re better than me at investing.
Correct.
When it comes to investing.
Correct.
Why?
Well —
I know why, but I want to hear you say it.
Many reasons, many reasons why, yes. This comes from a study that Fidelity Investments did. This is not just coming from my own knowledge. It’s backed up by Fidelity. Female investors have out-performed male investors over the last decade.
Really?
Really.
Really?
Really.
Really?
Yes, okay, because we’re not selfish <?>
Really?
I will, as he asked, <Inaudible> share some of the reasons why. We tend to be more patient than our male investors. When we’re investing, we tend to take a long view of what the goals are. We will be more by and hold as opposed to trading when it comes to stocks and mutual funds. We have a broader attitude towards investing plus saving for our families, as we do versus trying to hit the next hot stock or company. Some of us are getting married later, or getting divorced, or finding ourselves widowed at a young age, so we can’t rely on you guys to handle our finances. So we talk to people. We seek out professional help. And we read and we learn so we can know about investing.
<Inaudible> sounds like a testosterone <?> problem to me.
Joe’s going to come in next week with a whole list of why men are better — no, I’m kidding.
Well <Inaudible>
Try and find a study to back it up.
<Inaudible> I think generally that’s true. There certainly are exceptions on both sides, but men generally want to be aggressive by their very nature, and women are generally passive. And actually you want to be a passive investor. You want to make the right decisions. In fact, you want guidance, because you don’t want to just pick up Money Magazine or get some information from brother-in-law, and just let it ride. You want to have professional advice. But then, as I said <?>, don’t <Inaudible> try to fly the plane if you’ve hired a professional to do this for you. Men, often times, will want to tell you how to fly the plane, and a woman will trust the pilot. That’s often times the distinction. <Inaudible> right about that.
However, with our firm, it is actually a partnership. We are partners with our clients.
Well, Nancy, what’s the number to reach you on Monday?
407-869-9800 <sp?>, or they go to our website, fincialgroup.com. And they can look at a variety of different events we have coming up. They could schedule a complementary consultation, get a second opinion on their investments, a variety of other services that we offer.
You have a <Inaudible> — you have a Social Security, that you’re next up, I think.
I don’t know <?> <Inaudible> well we have our Shred-a-Thon coming up on the 22nd of April. Social Security Boot camp is Thursday, April 20th, from 6:00 to 7:30, hosted by myself and Denise Covach.
So let’s talk about the two <?>. April 22nd, for our listeners that may not have ever experienced this, we have an annual event at our office. You can bring by two banker’s boxes of stuff that you have accumulated throughout the year, as tax season is over. You can bring that stuff to our office, and we have a large truck commercial shredder. You can see it shredded before you eyes. And while you’re there you can register to win two tickets to the upcoming spring <?> concert with the Atlanta Philharmonic featuring the music of ABBA with a tribute band. You can come by, get more information. Go to our website. That’s fincialgroup.com. It’s right there on our homepage. Then, just two days before that, a Thursday, Nancy and Denise Covach are holding a —
Social Security boot camp.
Everything you wanted to know about Social Security but didn’t know who to ask. Once again, go to our website. That’s fincialgroup.com. Click on workshops. You can make a reservation right there.
Alright, we’ve got Wendy on line one. Wendy, you’re going to be up next with the Certified Financial Group with Joe and Nancy, right after we get the three big things you need to know. But I’ll let you have the phone number in case you want to get behind Wendy – 844-220-0965, 844-220-0965. We are planning tomorrow today with the Certified Financial Group on WDBO.
<Inaudible> Welcome back. This is On the Money with Certified Financial Group on News 96.5 WDBO. We are taking your phone calls at 844-220-0965, 844-220-0965, with Joe Bert and Nancy Hecht, Certified Financial Group. Text machine is up and running as well – 21232, 21232. Just keep it to about 160 characters. That’s all we can see on our screen. Right now, <Inaudible> five minutes away from latest news, weather, and traffic with Dave Wall in the News 96.5 news room. So let’s get right back to our phone calls. Talk to Wendy in Deltona. Wendy, you’re with Certified Financial Group.
Hi, good morning, guys.
Good morning.
How can we help you?
I’m in my mid-30s. I listen to your show all the time and usually you’re talking to people 20 years older than I am. But I had a question, is there any benefit at all to someone in my age range coming in and talking to you guys about retirement planning, or is that something where I should just keep throwing money into the retirement account, and then come see you once I reach say the 50 age mark?
There’s a definite benefit for you coming in and doing some planning now. I actually met with over the past week an 18 year old and a 21 year old. Those two have accumulated money and they want to start getting it to work for them. If you’re in your mid-30s, do you have a family?
Yes, I have a large family.
Chances are good there’s going to be a lot of life cycle events coming up over the next 20 years.
Sure.
So looking at your picture now, and how you’re living your life, and factoring in some taxes and inflation. And then doing an independent analysis of how you have your investments allocated and which ones you’re taking advantage of, is exactly what we do.
Okay.
For somebody at your age to start on the road of planning and then doing annual reviews and updates, you are going to be in a much better position than a lot of people that are coming in for the first time seeing us in their late 50s or early 60s.
Right, well, that’s good to know.
The one advantage that you have is time.
I don’t want to run out of time. That’s why I thought I’d call and ask.
Right, right, right.
<Inaudible> wisely <Inaudible>, as Nancy says, time is a great assets, and unfortunately most of us don’t realize how big of an asset <?> it is until we’ve run out of it and used it all up. So the good news for you is you have a lot of years, and the eighth wonder of the world, as Einstein said, is compound interest. Well, it is. If you get your money growing early on, it grows a lot — you’ll have a bigger pile than if you waiting until you’re 50 years old. Saving the extra $1,000, $2,000 a year makes a huge difference when you get to be retirement age. Focus on maxing out the contribution to your 401(k) plan.
Okay.
At your age, you want to be aggressive, because you have time to recover.
Right.
We will always have market cycles, but the long-term trends of the markets have always been up. But there will be ups and downs. But ignore the ups and downs, particularly at your age. Just maximize your contribution. At your age, you can put a maximum of $18,000 in your plan. And that’s what you ought to strive for. But, as Nancy said, having some planning gives you the peace of mind and you know what actually you need to do.
<Inaudible>
Can <?> I ask you one more quick question?
Sure.
I own a company, and I have not a lot of employees, but I have some employees. Does your company do a thing where maybe you might come in and talk to us — I know you <Inaudible> talk to us individually <Inaudible> but as a group?
Yeah. I’ve done brown bag universities at universities at business before —
Okay.
— where over lunch time everybody brings in their lunch and we talk about financial planning and take questions. So yes, that is something that we can do. If you would like to contact us, you can either, again, go to our website, which is fincialgroup.com, or call 407-869-9800.
Okay, great. I appreciate your time. Thank you.
<Inaudible> appreciate it. Thank you so much for the call. If anybody wants Wendy’s line, it’s 844-220-0965, 844-220-0965. We are taking your phone calls with Certified Financial Group. Joe Bert and Nancy Hecht here in the studio. Anything you have to do with retirement planning, or if you’re just 35 and want to know where your money in your 401(k) is going, that’s what we’re doing here on the radio this morning. We have some great workshops coming up and some details with the Certified Financial Group. We’ll get to those on the other side. But right now we pause to get the latest news, weather, and traffic from Dave Wall in the news 96.5 new room.
This is news —
Welcome back to On the Money here on news 96.5 WDBO. We are here with the Certified Financial Group – Nancy Hecht, Joe Bert live in the studio taking your phone calls at 844-220-0965, 844-220-0965. We are listening to the music of ABBA this morning. <Inaudible> ABBA because on May 6th we’re the proud sponsors, lead <?> sponsors, of the annual Springs concert to be held at the Springs Community in Longwood. This year featuring with the Atlanta Philharmonic, the music of ABBA. They bring in a tribute band. It’s a great night under the stores on your blanked with your adult beverage kicking back and relaxing. For more information go to our website. That’s fincialgroup.com, or you can go to our Facebook page, and register to win two free tickets to the ABBA concert.
Tickets are going fast.
<Inaudible> last week I heard <Inaudible> sold
<Inaudible> all the VIP stuff was sold out.
Wow.
It’s a great Mother’s Day gift.
Absolutely.
So if you want more information go to our website, fincialgroup.com, click on the link. It will take you right there and you can register for tickets, or you can register to win. Once again, go to our Facebook page. Register to win two free tickets to the ABBA concert May the 6th at the Springs Community in Longwood. For anybody that joined us during the latest news, weather, and traffic, what can the audience call you guys about today?
Oh, I’m sorry. I was doodling.
I was restating <?> for everybody that may have joined us recently, what can they call you about today.
I did hear you say that.
Okay, okay.
Any of your pocketbook questions, retirement planning, estate planning, long-term care, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, why you should hire a certified financial planner – all the burning questions that you’ve always wanted to ask somebody in reference to your investments and your retirement planning, give us a call.
That number again is 407 —
No, it’s 844- something.
<Inaudible> what the heck are the numbers here?
Here it is.
844-220-0965.
Or text us a 21232.
The text machine is up and running as well, 21232. Haven’t had a lot of texts yet this morning.
<Inaudible> on the ball this morning.
Alright, let’s get back to our phone lines, talk to Rob in Orlando. Rob, your on the on the Certified Financial Group.
Good morning, Rob.
Hi, Rob.
How you doing today?
Hey, how can we help you?
I had a question. I had a 401(k) with a prior employer. I kind of liked the company that they have and I’m no longer with that company, but can I actually contact the financial company that they have and invest money myself?
No. No, you’re asking, can you add money to your old 401(k) plan?
Yes.
The answer is no.
<Inaudible> should I pursue the 401(k) plan with the company I am with now?
Definitely.
Most definitely, yeah. You want to take advantage of as much pre-tax, payroll deducted investing as you can. With your old 401(k), do you like the investments that you have in there?
Yes, <Inaudible> I like the way the company is handling my account.
You could, if you have four or five different mutual funds in there, you can do an IRA — you can do a rollover to a self-directed IRA and potentially take advantage of the very same investments that you have in your former employer’s plan. That would be one way to take advantage. If they’re common mutual funds, then You should be able to get them in a retail format.
But what you don’t want to do is forego using the current 401(k). You want to max out your contributions to that before you do any investing on the outside if you’re trying to build money for retirement.
Still I haven’t signed on with the 401(k) <Lost Signal>.
Okay so <Inaudible> whatever.
You definitely need to do that.
I didn’t want to do that and have a 401(k) account with one investment company and then have another 401(k) account with another investment company. I have a Roth and a conventional 401(k) with the other company.
Well you can have a rollover IRA from your old employer and try and buy similar funds to what you have in there, and then you’ll have a brand new 401(k). I’m not a fan of leaving money where you are no longer working.
Okay.
Look into rolling it over and repurchasing the funds that you have right now that you like so much.
How old are you?
I’m 56.
56, well one of the advantages of leaving it in your old 401(k) is you can withdraw from it without a penalty before 59 and a half. That may be something that you want to think twice about doing that rollover. Every situation is unique, but by all means you definitely want to use your current employer’s plan to the max before you’re investing any money on the outside.
Appreciate the call. Alright Rob thanks so much for dialing us up. <Inaudible> it’s 844-220-0965. Good Charles on the topic we’ve got a 401(k) question for you. Charles you’re on with Certified Financial Group.
Hey hello again <?>.
Alright Charles how can we help you?
I’ve got a quick question <Lost Signal> first of all I’m 41 years old.
Okay 41 years, contributing 7%.
<Lost Signal> a week average, about $60 <?> a week. Am I <Lost Signal> or is that <Lost Signal>?
The question more for you Charles is could you comfortably contribute more. If you feel that you comfortably —
I could go a little bit higher, maybe <Lost Signal>.
If you increase a little bit more of what you’re doing pre-tax it’ll make little or no difference in what you have spendable. The money is going into your pocket as opposed to going to federal income taxes and you’ll be much better off in the long run by saving for yourself pre-tax.
Charles, what you want to do is strive to put 15% of your income into your 401(k).
<Lost Signal> put 15%.
Yes.
<Lost Signal>.
The match is gravy, the match really doesn’t matter, you’re doing for yourself.
<Lost Signal> 15% instead of 10.
Yes sir.
Correct.
I’m 41 right now <Lost Signal> retire when I’m about 60, 65 <Lost Signal>.
Yes, as we’ve been telling people all morning, you have plenty of time on your side and that’s a huge asset.
<Lost Signal> I’m going to try to go to 12 <Lost Signal> 12 <Lost Signal> can’t pay my bills, can I always <Lost Signal> a little bit?
Yes you can.
Charles if you can’t jump to 15% in one move, try moving 1% a year and get up there in the next 10 years to make it easy on yourself, get in there gradually. But like Nancy <?> said, you’ll find that your takehome pay won’t be affected that much because of the tax savings that you have. I guarantee you if you put aside 15% you’ll be well ahead of 99% of Americans that are going to retire in 20 years. So go for it Charles.
Alright Charles, appreciate it. If you want Charles <Inaudible> 844-220-0965. Again the number 844-220-0965. We also have the text machine running out there as well, 21232 just keep it about 160 <?> characters.
Let’s go to Susan in Orlando who’s got a Social Security question. Susan go ahead, you’re on the Certified Financial Group on WDBO.
Good morning guys. Thanks for taking my call. It’s actually for my mom. She just called this past week to Social Security and this coming month of May she’ll be turning age 70. She’ll need to make that change. She’s on my dad’s survivor risk benefit for Social Security, and then she’s going to change it to her own. When she was talking to them at Social Security they mentioned that they won’t be able to submit her application until like the day before her birthday in May. I wanted to know if that was just a normal process for that to be done, because it seemed like it was another almost two months before she can make that change. I wondered if that was normal or just gee, all that extra weight or is that normal.
Generally Susan your first payment is a month after when you’re qualified to receive it. That’s not unusual.
If you submit it two months before, she won’t get the full benefit of being age 70. That’s why you want to be age 70.
Okay, okay.
You’re saying it seems a little wacky, but it happens to be correct.
It happens to be correct. Great, alright, great. And then you mentioned something about the Social Security workshop you’ve got coming next month.
Right, we have myself and Denise Kovach regularly host a Social Security boot camp talking about the different claiming strategies. That’s Thursday, April 20 in our offices. It starts at 6:00. It goes for about an hour and a half. We’ll serve a very light dinner. You can go to our website which is FinancialGroup.com to register or you can call our office, 407-869-9800 and ask for Tiffany Wobley to make a reservation.
Wonderful, thank you so much guys, appreciate it.
Alright thanks for the call.
Yeah, thanks so much for the call. <Inaudible> 844-220-0965, that’s 844-220-0965. Now some air time to see what’s coming down the calendar there at Certified Financial Group, some of the other workshops you guys have got going on. <Inaudible>.
Yes I do. We have Social Security and then we have our shred-a-thon and then after that we have when can you retire, know your number which is Tuesday, June 6 from 6:00 to 8:00 hosted by Gary Ably and then Gary will also be hosting healthcare options in retirement on July 11 from 6:00 to 8:00, and financial basics life strategies for success. That will be a Saturday, September 16 from 11:00am to 1:00pm. Again if you go to our website FinancialGroup.com we have a workshop tab and you can click on that and you’ll get a drop-down for all the various different workshops and the date and you can make a reservation.
We <Inaudible> these are what we would call <Inaudible> board room, but it’s really a huge classroom. We have a large screen TV and a white board and accommodate about 35 people comfortably. We don’t cram you in a small room around a little conference room table. People say why do you do this kind of stuff? We do it for basically two reasons. Number one, to give you information so you can avoid those pitfalls that we see many clients walking into our office with. And secondly to introduce you to our firm is what we do <Inaudible> financial advisors and how we work with clients <Inaudible> financial planning now or sometime in the future you’ll give us an opportunity to earn your business. For more information go to our website, that’s FinancialGroup.com, that is FinancialGroup.com.
All the workshops are to impart information; we have nothing to sell.
Yeah, leave your checkbook at home as we say <?>, leave your checkbook at home and I guarantee you’ll walk out with great information. Nancy alluded to April 22, once again is our annual shred event held at our office. You can bring two baker’s boxes, all the stuff you accumulated now throughout the year when tax season is over you can come by and register for two free tickets to the upcoming Springs concert May 6 and that’s about all that information is on our website at FinancialGroup.com.
<Inaudible> very important. Let’s get back to purchase phone lines at 844-220-0965, talk to Tom. Tom you’re on with Certified Financial Group.
Good morning Tom.
Morning.
Hello?
Good morning, how can we help you?
Hi, <Inaudible> with approximately $200,000 in it and I also have a pension that will bring me about $980 something a month, and I’m just wondering what are the financial implications of the 401(k) if I decided to draw anything out of it. Is it worth my while? I’m looking to try to retire. Financially I’m not really that stable but yet I want to at least be able to get by.
Tom, how old are you now?
60 years old.
60?
Yes.
How much longer did you plan on working?
As little as I possibly can. I’m looking to do it within the next year if I can.
Have you had anybody crunch the numbers for you?
No I have not. That might be something you would want to take advantage of to give you a good solid answer based on your particular situation, but if you decide to start drawing off your 401(k) next year when you’re 61, you’re only going to pay ordinary income. Whether or not what you’ve accumulated plus your pension is going to be enough is just too hard to answer over the radio, because we really don’t know how you’re living your life and what kind of impact taxes and inflation are going to have on top of that. This is what we do for people is we put together a financial plan looking at your sources of income and how you have your investments allocated and how you’re living your life through life expectancy. Generally I use age 90 for that. Crunch some numbers and give you some good hard facts as to whether this money is going to last for you or not.
Tom, what you don’t want to do is <Inaudible> into retirement making irreversible decisions, you leave your job and then find out five years into retirement that you should have worked a couple more years. Believe me those last couple of years of working make a huge difference for your financial security when you get to be late 70s and 80s. I see this time and time again. The toughest cases that Nancy and I work on are clients that have made what I call back of the envelope financial planning. They do some calculations, okay I’m going to have this much coming from pension, Social Security, we’re going to spend this much, we’ll be okay, only to find out five or six years later that the wheels are coming off because they really didn’t crunch the numbers the way they needed to be crunched. I would suggest that you sit down with a certified financial planner. That’s what we do day in and day out for our clients for a fee. If you want more information go to our website, that’s FinancialGroup.com, FinancialGroup.com, we’d be glad to do a no-obligation visit and tell you what we do, how we do it and tell you what our fee is and then you can make an intelligent decision. I would not launch off into retirement without at least having a roadmap, a guide as to what it looks like.
Right, I have one other question. I gave this some thought too. Is taking my 401(k) and paying everything I have off. Is there a penalty to that?
No, there’s not a penalty to that except for adding 200,000 or whatever <Inaudible> over the next year to your taxable income. Then you’ve taken your liquid income producing nest egg and spent it all. I don’t happen to think that’s a good decision at all.
This is what financial planning will tell us and the timing in which you should do that. It’ll analyze what your debt is, what your interest rates are and what the cost is going to be to take that money out. I understand the psychological thing. People say you want to be debt free, get out of debt, go into retirement, that’s a great way to go. However, you can be shooting yourself in the foot by trying to get there. You want to be careful. There’s a psychological side to it and then there’s a financial side to it.
Alright Tom, we appreciate the phone call. We’re up against the break here. Here’s the three big things you need to know. Guys, what’s the number to reach the Certified Financial Group during the week?
407-869-9800 our switch board is open from 8:30 to 5:30 Monday through Friday.
Alright <Inaudible> Nancy <Inaudible> Certified Financial Group we are planning tomorrow, right here on News 96.5 WDBO.
Welcome back this is On The Money with the Certified Financial Group here on News 96.5 WDBO, we are three minutes away from news, weather and traffic, so we’ve got to get right back to our busy phone calls with Joe and Nancy from Certified Financial Group. Helen in Orlando, you’re on the air.
Hi, I’m calling regarding my grandchildren. I want to leave them something, and I have liquid that’s sitting here doing nothing savings, and I want to set up some kind of a savings for them like a five-year plan, between the ages of 16 and 23, and even at 23 they’ll be under 30 they could get something from me. That’s why I wanted to set up something.
How much money are we talking about Helen?
Probably over 100,000.
100,000. You may want to consider using a trust.
That’s what I was thinking is a trust.
A trust, and then you can designate investments as to what you want to do in there and then designate under what conditions the children would be eligible to get that money, by going to college or maybe for a wedding or buying their first car or for illnesses. Then that trust can be advised by professionals, that’s what we do for our client.
You do that?
Yes, that’s what I recommend with that amount of money.
Okay.
Each grandchildren is unique, each has their own needs and so forth, and you can be the trustee for as long as you live.
I know I won’t be around.
Okay, then what you’d do is you’ll designate a successor trustee, one of your children perhaps or trusted advisor and then you can take it from there. That’s the best way to handle that amount of money for that number of grandchildren’s.
So you’ll do trusts then?
Well, we don’t write the trusts, we work with an attorney that does but we manage the money that’s in the trust.
Alright, Helen, thanks so much for the call. Let’s get to Scott up in Glenwood. Scott, you’re on with Certified Financial Group.
Hi Scott.
How are you doing? Nice to talk to you Nancy and Joe. I’ve got a question, I’ll give you a hypothetical out there. My wife and I are getting close to retirement and we’re going to get 36,000 a year in Social Security. <Inaudible> 36,000 out of our IRAs as well a year, that’s 72,000. Then we also have a small pension of 4,000 so that’s up to 76,000. Will that still keep us in a 15% tax bracket based on today’s tax rate, or would we be jumping to 25?
Well assuming you have standard deductions —
Yeah if you’re looking at gross when you hand it out, it should keep you there, but we have no idea what taxes are going to look like after the administration is done with tax reform. You’re probably safe at 15%.
Alright that’s going to do it for this week’s edition of On The Money. Guys, what’s the number to reach Certified Financial Group?
407-869-9800 or better yet go to our website FinancialGroup.com, that’s FinancialGroup.com. We have some planning tomorrow, and we’ll do it next week, right here at 9:00 News 96.5 WDBO.