Hosts: Harry Stadelmayer, CFP®, AIF® and Joe Bert, CFP®, AIF®
Hello everybody, welcome to another edition of On the Money, Certified Financial Group
Good morning.
Good morning.
On this beautiful Saturday morning.
Gorgeous.
71, breezy.
Yeah, beautiful weekend, huh?
Absolutely. Well, what can the audience
Once again, Harry and I are here to take any questions that might be on your mind regarding your personal finances. As we say, we go through life trying some of this, trying some of that, wake up one day 55 years old, look across the kitchen table at Loretta and say, honey, it ain’t too far away.
We’ve been using Loretta more and more these days.
Where’s Loretta coming from?
What are we going to do? How are we going to fix all this? How are we going to take this 401k we have and that IRA and the savings we have and the Social Security and make it all work? Because the paychecks are going to stop some day and we want to keep living.
That’s right.
And these are the questions that Harry, and I, and the other certified financial planners at CFG do for our clients day in and day out for a fee. But, on Saturday morning we do it for free. So, if you have any questions regarding your personal finances as it may relate to questions about stocks and your mutual funds, about your 401k, about an IRA, about real estate, long-term healthcare, annuities, life insurance, reverse mortgages, anything else on your mind regarding your personal finances. The good news is we’re live this morning —
On April 15th —
And you can pick up the phone and dial these magic numbers. You can be first in line because there’s nobody in line yet. So, what are those numbers, Kyle?
844-220-0965. 844-220-0965. We also have the text machine up and running as well, 21232. That’s 21232. Text in, we’ll see it on our monitor here. We’ve got 160 characters in the window, so just keep it to that little mark and if you need some more information back and forth, well that’s what the phone lines are for. Again, 844-220-0965. Again, we are live here April 15th. Joe, today would be tax day. Taxes are due, right?
5:00 Friday.
No, no, no, no.
Everybody’s freaking out now, going oh.
No, I believe because Monday is a holiday in Washington, Tuesday is when taxes are due.
Right.
So, you still have until Tuesday to fund that IRA, to do your
So my question
Yeah. You have until Tuesday. Actually, I believe it’s — as long as it’s stamped by 5:00pm, you’re okay.
Yeah, you’ve got to get it in the mail.
And so if you have last minute needs for deductions or —
And that’s the best way to do it.
It really is.
Best way to do it. And if you’re self-employed you can do the SEP until you file your taxes with the extension, which is in October. So, look at those opportunities because putting money in a 401k is the best thing you can do — I’m sorry, into your IRA if you don’t have a 401k to start saving for your retirement. Right?
Yeah, absolutely.
August, yeah August.
April 18th, midnight is the deadline. Not today.
Not today. Yes, not today. You don’t have to worry about — I bet CPAs are going crazy this weekend.
Oh yeah.
They’re going crazy.
I’m thinking Easter dinner tomorrow is going to be short for some of those folks.
They may not even be there.
Well, we do have some phone callers here coming in at 844-220-0965, so let’s get started so we can have a busy, productive day. Let’s start off with Mike in Winter Garden. Mike, you’re on with the Certified Financial Group on WDBO.
Good morning, Mike.
Hello, Mike. Are you there?
Mike?
Mike on the mic?
I think we lost Mike. Mike, well if you can hear us, we can’t hear you.
Hello, now Mike, can you hear us now?
Yes, I can hear you.
There we go.
We had this problem yesterday. We had this problem yesterday during the news. It wouldn’t take the first time.
There we go.
We’ll get that fixed.
Okay, I’m a teacher and I’m close to retirement. I’ve got actually over 30 years and I was just considering retiring and taking the lump sum or taking the monthly payments. Do you have any general ideas about that?
Well, yeah, we do. That is — Mike, that — first of all, congratulations on 30 years of teaching. Kudos to you.
Thank you.
That is a very — it’s not a short answer, it’s not an easy answer. There’s a lot of number crunching that should be done. Unfortunately, we find that many people look at that lump sum and their eyes light up and say wow, I could — this will last the rest of my life. When in fact, you don’t know that for sure until you really do some number crunching. So, for us to sit here and say well, in our opinion you should take the lump sum or you should not really plays into a lot of factors with other asset that you have, and debt that you have, and there’s so many components to making that decision to whether you give our firm a call or a certified financial planner a call, that does require some planning in our opinion because you could make a decision that’s irrevocable and you may regret in three or four years, but if you lay out the plan you’ll know and have that confidence when you fill out that form that you made the correct decision.
And then you’ve got some choices. Do you take the single life option which gives you the most income for your lifetime, or do you select the survivor option, which gives you less income but also provides for a survivor. And of course, if the survivor predeceases you, you don’t get more money. So, there are — and if you’re single and depending on what your health situation is — are you in DROP, Mike?
Not yet.
You’re not yet, okay. Well, we have a lot of clients that have come to see us and have elected the pension, but they take that pension money and they put it in the DROP program and they let that accumulate for five years, but then they have a lump sum of money after three to five years that they can use and roll into an IRA, and then they still have the pension. So, you want to look at that as well. And what you want to do is be sure that in fact when you pull that trigger and you decide you’re going to retire that in fact you have enough gas in the tank to get you through retirement. The toughest cases that Harry and I work on are clients that have made those irrevocable decisions, have already retired. They do what I call back of the envelope financial planning, which means they look at — okay, this is what my expenses are. We spend so much every month in gasoline, groceries, electricity, and so forth. And we’re going to
Absolutely. Mike, are you married if I may ask?
Yes, I am.
Is your bride also retired or going to retire?
No, she’s not. She works at — she has a small daycare business. Very small.
So, that also comes into play.
Right.
If the wife is going to continue working for 5 or 10 more years, how does that fit into the — so, you have a lot of moving parts here, Mike, that we’d love to say yes, take the lump sum or take the life-only option, but that wouldn’t be — we wouldn’t be doing you justice or any of our listeners justice. It requires a little effort on your part, a little bit of money, but the result and the end result would be peace of mind. So, and you’re certainly welcome to call our office. We’d love to meet with you. There’s no obligation.
Give us the number for Certified Financial Group.
407-869-9800. Mike, if you call our office we’ll have you come in, we’ll buy you a cup of coffee, we’ll spend a little time with you, and really lay things out for you. And then you can make a decision whether you’d like to use our firm or someone else.
Or better yet, Mike can go to our website, financialgroup.com. Financialgroup.com. You can learn all about us and how we’re different from most folks out there that just want to sell you something.
Yeah, absolutely. Alright, Mike, thank you so much for the phone call. If you want Mike’s line, the number to dial us up is 844-220-0965. 844-220-0965. We also have the text machine, 21232. Steve is on our line
Morning Steve.
Morning Guys. How we doing?
Good, how can we help you?
Steve, are you driving or are you sitting on I-4?
Well, I’m driving and I’m not sitting on I-4, so traffic’s light.
How can we help you?
Well, I’ll just give you the quick
Let me back up. First of all, thanks for your service and you did have a real job.
Well, I’d do it for free, that’s why I said it wasn’t a real job.
Okay.
But now I have one.
Right.
So, my dilemma is I didn’t put a lot of money away while I was in the service due to lack of pay and moving around a lot. I have my house that I currently live in, I have a rental house, and at work I’ve been pumping a lot of money into my 401k. So, my question is should I continue that or pay down one of the houses? Which makes better sense? I want to retire at 62, so 10-year plan for me.
Okay, so Steve, I think you have admitted that you’re a little behind and I —
Way behind.
Yeah, and I might suggest that you first and foremost maximize — without really looking at the big picture — but maximizing your 401k. It takes money to retire, having a home paid off is nice, but having to catch up is something that I think is number one focus for you and getting that money in on a pre-tax basis. And there might be a way of you doing a little bit of both. I mean, if there’s a little belt tightening, you might be able to maximize your 401k because it reduces your tax situation, so you save some money in tax, you might use that money to maybe pay off the mortgage a little quicker. So, there might be an answer there for you to do both.
Steve, Steve, is the rental cash flowing? Are you able to make the payments and keep it up without having —
Oh, yes.
Oh, great.
500 a month in the black.
Oh, sweet. Alright. So, we don’t have any negative cash flow. Yeah, Harry’s 100% right. Steve, what you need to focus on at your age is getting $24,000 a year into your 401k.
I’ll do it.
That’s the maximum that you can put in. You ought to be looking for growth, don’t be looking for something guaranteed, don’t be looking for something that is in the bond area. At your particular age, you want to go for more growth than income and maximize that, and then the house will be paid down as you’re going and you’re retiring. You’ll have money in the 401k that’s liquid, you’ll have income coming in from the rental properties, and just focus on that. Are you married, Steve?
Yes.
Does your wife work outside the home?
No. She’s not contributing much right now. She had some medical stuff, so she’s been around for 20-some years
I got you, I got you. Okay, well what you ought to look at too is setting up an IRA for her. Depending on what your income is, this will also get you a tax deduction as well. If she’s the same age, she can put $6,500 into that. In fact, if you haven’t filed your taxes yet, you can still do that for last year.
Too late, that ship has sailed.
Alright, okay. Well Steve, thanks for your service and focus on getting $24,000 in that 401k.
Alright, absolutely. Thank you so much for the call Steve. If you would like Steve’s line, it’s 844-220-0965. 844-220-0965. Right now we’re going to pause and give you three big things you need to know, but real quick Harry, what’s the number to reach you guys over at Certified Financial Group?
The number there is 407-869-9800. 407-869-9800 or financialgroup.com. Website is wonderful, a lot of good information.
Alright, lots of time to get your calls and questions answered. Again, the number, 844-220-0965. We are planning tomorrow —
Today —
With the Certified Financial Group on WDBO.
This is where Orlando turns first for breaking news
And welcome back to On the Money with the Certified Financial Group here on News 96.5 WDBO’s Ask the Experts weekend. We were taking your phone calls at 844-220-0965 with Joe Bert and Harry Stadelmayer. Joe, we are enjoying the music of ABBA on the return here. Why?
Well, on May 6th, Certified Financial Group once again is a proud sponsor of the annual event at the Springs Community in Longwood. This year, featuring the music of ABBA. It’s a wonderful night. Folks, if you’ve never been there
But not much left.
Not much left
Absolutely.
We hope to see you there.
Speaking of great events, you guys have one next Saturday at your office.
We do. We have a shredding event. We started doing this several years ago and it’s been extremely well received and so next Saturday, if you have those old tax returns or — I would say about seven years. After seven years they can be safely shred.
Past 2010.
Yes. So, that will be next Saturday morning at our office. It’s real simple and it’s real easy. You just pull your car in, we have a big old truck there. You an actually watch your documents being shredded so you know that there’s security in place and that they are, in fact, being shredded and not shared with anyone. But, that is next Saturday at our office from 10:00 to 12:00.
10:00 to 12:00.
10:00 to 12:00. So, come on by. We do ask that you limit it to two banker’s boxes, not two pick-up trucks.
Right.
That did happen to us in the first year, so we’ve sort of backed off on that one.
And if you come by, you can register for two free tickets to come to the concert. We’ll be giving that away.
Great.
And come by, and meet the planners, and we’ll be broadcasting live from the parking lot. So that’s
Cool.
And we’ll be — hope to see you there. And we’ve got Nancy and Denise.
Nancy — we’ve got a busy schedule.
Nancy and Denise, Thursday night, Social Security Boot Camp. Everything that you want to know about Social Security. These ladies do an outstanding job of breaking down Social Security; what to look for, what decisions you have to make, and that is Thursday night. Go to our website, register, doesn’t cost you a dime, but a lot of good information. So, please pick upon that if you’re at, or near, or have questions about Social Security.
Once again, that’s at financialgroup.com.
Alright, we are three minutes away from the latest news, weather, and traffic, so let’s get right back to our busy, busy phone lines. Dennis from Belushi County is up next. Dennis, you’re on with the Certified Financial Group here on News 96.5.
Good morning, Dennis.
Good morning, guys. Appreciate you taking my call.
Sure, how can we help you?
Well, I’m in my late 60s. I am drawing Social Security but I run a small business also. My wife is 65 in September and we’ve got the question of whether she should take Social Security — she works. She’s going to continue to work and she’s trying to figure out if we’re better off to take Social Security at 65 or wait until 66 and that’s one of the questions.
Well she’s going to be — if she earns more than about $17,000 a year, she’s going to be penalized for taking Social Security before her full retirement age.
That’s what we thought.
She’ll have to give back $1 for every $2, so she ought to hang on.
I think it’s a good idea. Now, next part of the question. We only have about 300,000 to 350,000 in the IRA. But, we’ve got every bit of it in stock market.
Okay.
And all with one fund — three different funds all under the same name. I’m not sure if we, at our age — she’s 65, I’m 68 — I’m not sure that we ought to be in the stock market 100%. And that’s why I really called right there and whether I should give my assets over to you guys. I’ll make an appointment for next week anyway. You’d like me to do that.
Yeah, that’s where I would start. But Dennis, when you say it’s all in the stock market, that can mean many, many things. As we all know, the stock market means many different things to many different people.
Yeah, it’s a very mixed bag. Some of it is higher risk, some overseas stock. We try to keep it diversified as much as possible.
Yeah, the problem —
But I mean one shot fired in North Korea is when would go downhill quickly.
Well, but the problem is that, again, you may have three different funds, they may all do the same thing which means you’re not very well diversified. But yeah, somebody needs — please call our office. Somebody needs to take a look at that via a pretty simple conversation about how you really probably should diversify a little bit more.
What’s the number to reach you, Harry?
407-869-9800. 407-869-9800.
Alright, Dennis, thank you so much for the phone call. If you would like Dennis’ line, the number to dial us up is 844-220-0965. I see Rebecca, Andy, Kathy; hang on the line. You will be right up after the latest news, weather, and traffic. And if you want to get behind them in line, we’ve got plenty of lines for you to do so. 844-220-0965. We are planning tomorrow —
Today —
With the Certified Financial Group here on News 96.5 WDBO. Alrighty, welcome back to On the Money with the Certified Financial Group here on News 96.5 WDBO’s Ask the Experts weekend. We are taking your phone calls at 844-220-0965 with Joe Bert and Harry Stadelmayer of the Certified Financial Group. Joe, what can the audience call you about today?
Once again, harry and I are here to take any questions that you have regarding your personal finances as they relate to questions about stocks, bonds, or IRAs, 401(k)s, so on and so forth. I want to circle back to Dennis who called
Sure, absolutely.
At the bottom of the hour there. His question was his wife was still working. She was less than full retirement age and we told him that if she claimed Social Security, she’ll have that offset losing $1 for every $2 that she earns and
All of these options that you have —
But she needs to wait until she’s full retirement age to do that, she can’t start that now. So either way, she needs to wait until she’s 66.
Yes.
Maybe claim the spousal. So once again Nancy and Denise will talk about that Thursday at the workshop. Thursday
I’m really excited, you’ve got them all their great workshops coming too and the information is all there at Financialgroup.com.
You got it.
Alright, let’s get back to our phone lines here, talk to Rebecca at Norman Beach. She’s hanging on for a while, Rebecca you’re on with the Certified Financial Group here on WDBO.
Good morning.
Good morning.
The question that I have is I’m in the process of selling my home and when the sale is complete I will receive a large lump sum of money. Two questions: I do not intend to turn around and purchase another home; I’m choosing to rent for a while. Are there any taxes implications of not reinvesting that lump sum money into annuity home? And then my second question, what do you have for recommendations as far as how to invest that lump sum of money. I’m 60 years old, retired.
Alright, first thing is, is the home that you’re selling was your primary residence for two of the last five years?
Yes.
Secondly, are you married?
No, single.
Is the profit, the profit now on the home greater than $250,000? Not what you’re going to get, but the profit. What you paid for plus any improvements, greater, more than $250,000?
No.
Okay, you have absolutely no taxes.
No taxes, okay.
If profit is 250K or more — or less — less, yeah, less. No tax. Okay.
Now the second question is —
And then —
What do you do with the money?
Yeah.
Alright, the question is going to be determined by your time horizon and when you’re need to draw from it. If you’re going to need to start drawing from this within less than five years, you need to keep in something where it’s guaranteed and secured, which isn’t going to give you much of a return. See, that’s not investing, that’s saving because you’re going to cash it out and you want to know that it’s there. Investing requires long-term, like the rest of your life.
Right.
So this is what you need to look at. And we would not make any recommendations to you regarding investing it.
Oh, okay.
Now, savings you can look at — when is your timeframe in which you’ll think you’ll tap into this money?
And that’s something that I still need to work on as far as where I’m going to live, how much it’s going to cost me, and that kind of thing.
Sure, sure.
For the time being what you want to do is you want to keep it safe, you want to keep it guaranteed, you want to keep it liquid. So you —
Okay.
Unfortunately, you don’t have many choices. The only thing
And that can change if all of the sudden Kathy, you decide that you like this renting thing and you think that this money will be long-term. As Joe said, that this is money that you’ll just — then you may want to look at starting to invest that money in other places that will give you a little better return. But otherwise, that is money that needs to be there and you would be very upset if you invested that money and you found that perfect home and the money was worth 10% or 15% less and now you’re not real happy.
In
No, I don’t.
No pension.
No, so I’ll live on my savings. Is this the bulk of your savings?
No.
Okay, so what you need to do, Kathy, is meet with a certified financial planner and design a plan for you. When you have a better sense as to where you’re going to be living and then determine how much you want to put down, should you finance the property. Even looking at doing — if where you’re going to live long-term after your next house — that’s your long-term plan to be in this house, you may want to look at paying for this house using a reverse mortgage. Takes up less of your cash and allows you to have liquidity, allows you to have income, and not a mortgage payment to some degree. So those are things that you want to consider when you’re making this next move.
Okay.
But the good news for you, there’s no taxes.
Right.
Yeah, okay thank you very much.
Alright Rebecca, I appreciate the phone call, thank you so much —
That was Kathy.
No, that was Rebecca.
That was Rebecca, I’m sorry.
Kathy is up next.
Sorry Rebecca.
Yes, good morning.
Good morning, actually
Thank you for the service you provide, it’s awesome.
Thank you very much.
I want to talk about an issue that has just come up. I sold a rental property that was titled
Kathy, I am totally lost in the woods here, and I’m not equipped to answer your question. However, if you call our office on Monday, I will direct you to somebody that can answer for you. I’ve never had this question asked before.
Yeah, that’s a specialty.
Yeah, I wish I could give you an answer, but unfortunately I don’t have an answer for you. But I’d be glad to help you, we can always find a resource for you but I can’t answer that question.
But going back to the big picture where she’s very uncomfortable giving Social Security number out — and I understand that. Unfortunately in this world, I mean I know at our office we require a Social Security number and we take that very, very seriously, obviously as far as the confidentiality. But unfortunately in the business world today, sometimes you do have to give that Social Security number out. In fact, we want to peek at your driver’s license.
My dilemma — or questioning revolves around the LLC that’s no longer there. And so the house is owned by the LLC, how do we get that situation turned out — I don’t have an answer for you.
Okay. Alright Kathy, thanks so much for the phone call. Let’s get to Andy and Vero Beach. Andy, you’re on with the Certified Financial Group on WDBO.
Hi Andy.
Hello Andy.
Thank you. I’m calling to ask if a person maxes out their 401k, are they still allowed to have either a Roth or traditional IRA.
It depends on your income, it depends on what your income is. Can you tell us what your income is?
Well
Pardon me?
100K a year.
100K. Chances are, yes, you can still do a deductible IRA — are you married?
Yes.
Okay, yeah chances are — let me look at the threshold amounts here. I think you’re under the
I see, it’s 99,000 to 119,000. 99,000 to 119,000.
Yeah, but chances are you’re going to be okay to do a deductible IRA.
Okay, thank you very much.
Okay, thank you.
Good luck.
Alright Andy, thanks so much for the phone call. If you want Andy’s line, it’s 844-220-0965. 844-220-0965. Glen in Port Orange is up next. Glenn, you’re on with the Certified Financial Group.
Good morning, Glenn.
Good morning.
Good morning, how can we help you?
Hey, good morning. Yeah, I’m retired from New York City. I did 20 years of sanitation. I came down here to Port Orange, Florida, and I purchased a house. I just currently paid it off. I do get a pension and I am currently working for a bus company down here in Florida and they match the 401k at 5%, and I’m putting in 40%. 58 years old, and I’m wondering is 62 years enough for me to cash it in
So what you want to know is if you have gas in a tank to get you through the next 25 years?
Yes.
Wow. Ben , there’s a lot of moving parts to that. A lot of it has to do — first of all, congratulations on paying off the house. But there are a lot of moving parts there. And again, this requires — as we talk with — can’t remember who — it was Mike, I think the teacher, this requires some number crunching. You can yellow pad it all day long and make some assumptions, say hey I’ve got a pension, I’ve got a little money here, I’m putting money away in my 401k, they’re matching. And we have a rate of return and we think we can get 6% or 7%. But until you really sit down and look at inflation and look at all of the moving parts that come with doing the financial plan, that’s a tough, tough answer and I would highly encourage you as we did with Mike that you get with a certified financial planner and pay a fee to have someone tell you exactly the direction you need to go. And if you make this option, this is what’s going to happen. Because again, you don’t want to make a mistake, and you don’t want to get into that — I call it the paper plastic syndrome, where you’re now 75 going oh man, I think I need to go paper plastic
The good news for you is you have a pension, you’ll have Social Security, you have a house paid off. Depending on what your lifestyle is, you’re probably going to be —
Okay, that’s good. The simpler, the better.
Well you know what we do when we do planning? I had a heart to heart discussion with a prospect that came to see us — see me this week. I said the most important thing we can give you is peace of mind. When you’re about to retire, what you want to do is have a high degree of comfort. And then we start saving down that road called retirement, 25 years, that you’re going to be okay. And as we talked to Mike early on, the worst thing that happens is that people retire and make this irreversible decisions
Have no clue.
They have no clue.
They call it what
Glenn, thanks so much for the phone call. We appreciate it. Real quick before we get — let’s see if we can squeeze in Dave and Coco. Dave, you’re on with the Certified Financial Group on WDBO.
Good morning, Dave.
Hi guys, good morning. I’ve got a question: My mom’s husband just died and she’s got a 401k. She’s worried about a market correction and she just wants to take it out and do something different with it. She’s 73, but her husband was 68. So I guess there’s a timeframe when you got to take out, but what’s the easiest way for her to get it out without — well for the least penalties I guess so to speak, or the least tax liability?
Wait a minute Dave, you’re saying that she wants to cash out the IRA itself
Yes.
How much money are we talking about, just out of curiosity?
About 70,000.
Does she have any other income?
Just his Social Security.
Okay.
Whatever she takes out of that 401k is going to be fully taxable to her. The best thing to do is to roll it into an individual retirement account and then decide how conservatively she wants to invest it. She’ll have to do what’s called required minimum distributions from it, which is an amount that she’ll have to take out every year. But you don’t want to definitely cash out — and because you’re going to get hit with a big tax bill.
And required distributions from it, from what she was told required distributions wouldn’t count right now until his age would be — like at 72, is that the —
70 and a half.
I thought he was 73.
No, she’s 73, he was 68. He just died, has was 68.
That’s correct, that’s correct.
So she could — what I was trying to explain to her and I might be wrong. What I was trying to explain to her was after you take out a certain amount, then you’re going to get hit not only on your 401k withdrawals but your Social Security too once you make a certain amount. I guess then they start taxing your Social Security.
That’s correct.
And so I was just wondering is there a limit that she can take out before they tax her Social Security, or is there a —
No, it’s all going to be added to her Social Security income. So basically what you’re telling me — that’s not going to be an issue. What she needs to do — what you don’t want to do is cash out that 401k and pay taxes on $70,000.
Right.
Well eventually she’s going to have to do that anyway, correct?
No, but not in a lump sum.
Yeah. And going back to your original question, she’s afraid the market is going to crash. She can do a direct rollover of that 401k, move it into a self-direct IRA and she can be as conservative as she wants to. That doesn’t necessarily mean she’s going to pull the money out and cash it and put it into her bank. She can roll it over and then downshift as far as the risk she’s taking in that IRA rollover, but she probably should not — she shouldn’t pull all of it because she’s going to get hit with a tax bill that she’s not going to like.
Now — and that will affect the taxation of her Social Security plus increase her Medicare premiums that year. So that is definitely what she doesn’t want to do. But as Harry said, she can roll it into an IRA. And if she wants to be ultra conservative, she can put it in a CD or money market account. It’ll die there, won’t make any money, but it’ll get her out of the market and save her a big
Dave, thanks so much for the call. We have to stop because of the three big things that you need to know. But before we do that, I want to give the phone number one more time. That’s 844-220-0965.
You’re with the Certified Financial Group on WDBO.
And welcome back, this is On the Money with the Certified Financial Group here on News 965 WDBO. We are taking your phone close at 844-220-0965. As I look at the clock, we are three minutes away from latest news, weather, and traffic, so let’s get right back to our busy, busy phone line. Talk to Ben in Orlando. Ben, you’re on with the Certified Financial Group. Joe Bert and Harry Stadelmayer here on WDBO.
Ben.
Good morning guys, I really appreciate your show.
Thank you, thank you for calling.
My question is, I’m in a good spot. I’m 42 , single, there’s no kids that are going to happen. I’m getting surplus of money, income. And so I maxed out the 401k and so now I have $10,000 extra. And I’m trying to figure out what to do with it. My debt situation is I have a current mortgage on my house. I did have a refinance a rental property for a 15 year fixed that’s low and I have student loan debt and a car payment. So I’m trying to figure out — my brother-in-law had mentioned well maybe I should put that money toward the rental property and cut years off of that mortgage. But I kind of thought well maybe I should pay the Jeep off and have that money available quicker. What do you guys think?
Let me ask you a critical question here. You say you’re maxing out your 401k, which means how much dollars are you putting every year in a 401k?
18 and a half .
18
Yes, it is.
So you’re covering the expenses with the income from it?
Correct.
And you have $10,000 a year, you said.
Well, I have $10,000 just sitting around right now.
Okay, alright. And then you have positive cash flow.
I do, and I’ve got my safety net, it’s 13,000 in case something goes wrong.
Good, okay.
But now I have —
How much do you owe on the Jeep?
30.
What’s your interest rate?
2.04.
Okay, I wouldn’t worry about paying that baby off. Here’s what you need to do, if you’re comfortable with rentals, and you can handle that — you’re a single guy so you have time on your hands and
Dictation made on 4/21/2017 5:50 PM EDT.