Hosts: Nancy Hecht, CFP®, AIF® and Joe Bert, CFP®, AIF®
It’s an Ask the Experts Saturday morning on News 96.5, and this is On The Money, brought to you by central Florida’s oldest and largest — Independent — Firm of certified financial planning professionals, that being the Certified Financial Group in Altamonte Springs, and each and every Saturday morning at this time, the experts from the Certified Financial Group come in to answer all of your pocketbook question issues and today is no exception. Today we have Joe Bert, the Oracle of Orlando, and Nancy Hecht, author of The Hecht Effect and A Man Is Not A Plan. Good morning to both of you.
Good morning.
Morning.
Joe, in case anybody may be new to this program, what do you all take calls about.
Well once again, Nancy and I are here to answer those questions that you might have as you look into your future and ponder your retirement. What are you going to do, so when you reach those retirement years and the paychecks stop you have enough income to enjoy as we say the golden years, enough income to enjoy your life. Unfortunately, most people don’t do any planning and they reach that age and <Inaudible> when they’re 50 and say my gosh, you know, these paychecks are going to stop, kids are out of the house, I’ll get Social Security, what are we going to do. They don’t teach us this stuff in school, so we go through life making decisions, some good, often times not so good, and we end up with a collection of financial accidents. So we are here this morning to clear the fog, as they say, to answer questions that you might have regarding your personal finances about stocks and bonds, mutual funds, real estate, long-term healthcare, IRAs, 401(k)s, annuities, reverse mortgages, life insurance, all that and more, and these are the topics that Nancy and I and the 10 other certified financial planning professionals at CFG deal with every day, and I often say on Monday and Friday we do it for a fee, but on Saturday morning we do it for free. So if you have any questions about any of those topics or anything else I may not have mentioned, the good news for you is there is absolutely nobody in line, so all you have to do is pick up the phone and dial —
844-220-0965. 844-220-0965, or you can text us at 21232. 21232. Or if you want your voice on the air you can be part of the show by using the open mic, and you’ll find the open mic on the News 96.5 app.
You know Joe you just said, you reach retirement age and now you sit back and say what am I going to do which I have been dealing with something that brings people to that place a little bit sooner which is life cycle events, most importantly somebody either getting severely ill and having to pull themselves out of the work force or somebody passing away before a ripe old age in their 80s or their 90s, and it forces bad decisions to the front much faster.
Yes it does. Those things are kind of — happen — or, as you’ve seen, we’ve seen with our clients over the years, mom and dad pass away and all of a sudden you have what we call sudden wealth.
Right, right.
And what do we do with this money that we have, we don’t want to blow it, we want to be sure we can use it correctly. So those are all the things that Nancy and I deal with, so once again the good news for you is if you’ve got any questions pick up the phone and dial and dial —
844-220-0965. Let’s talk to Tammy in Apopka. Good morning Tammy.
Hi Tammy.
Hi, good morning everybody, how are you?
Good, thanks for calling.
We’re good. What’s your question, Tammy?
I’m 54 years of age, and I have zero set up for retirement.
Okay.
I don’t know where to begin. I don’t know what <Inaudible>. I know we have a 401(k) at work, but they do not match it. I don’t even know if that’s worth something to start trying to put something into.
If you want to stop right there I’m going to say unequivocally, yes. Look upon the match as gravy, or icing on the cake, but every dollar you put into your 401(k) is a dollar that’s going in your pocket versus that of the federal government, and you should take advantage of your 401(k) to the greatest extent that you can comfortably afford.
Tammy at your age the maximum that you could put in is $24,000. For some people I know that’s a real stretch but that’s what you want to be stretching for because as you said you have nothing accumulated for retirement and you’re going to retire one day, and you’ll have Social Security, and if that’s the only thing you have you’re going to be living at below the poverty level. So that’s why the government has really instituted the 401(k)s now, about 30 years ago, because they realize that most people don’t have pensions and the only thing they will have is what they’ve been able to save over their working lifetime, and as Nancy said when you put that money in it goes in on a pre-tax basis. You don’t pay taxes, and it will grow for you without being taxed. I know trying to sort through all that stuff, you get this information, where do I put my money, did I make a mistake. You have at least 10 years to accumulate money. I can tell you what you ought to do. Pick out –make it simple — pick out what’s called a target-date fund in your 401(k) plan, you probably have funds that say like Vanguard 2025, 2035, 2045, maybe T. Rowe Price, maybe Principal, whoever it might be, but there will be a date attached to that. And that date kind of coincides with your retirement date. Put the money in there for the next 10 years, force yourself to put in the maximum, and you’ll be far better than 95% of America out there. Do you want to add anything, Nancy?
Well no, it seemed like you had something beyond where do I start.
Right.
Or does this help?
It does help. It really helps.
Alright, good. Good.
But I have no idea what — because everybody talks about the 401(k) and they’re like don’t do it.
No no.
No.
That is the worst — taking advantage of pre-tax savings is the best and easiest thing that you can do for yourself, and it will make no difference in your spendable. As a matter of fact, saving pre-tax may increase your spendable income simply because you’re paying less in taxes.
Tammy, you’re being influenced by your coworkers, I hear because some people say don’t do it, it’s not good, and the reason being is because they don’t understand how investing works. Investing is very simple. What you want to do is get the maximum number of shares that you can while you’re putting money into the account, and the good news is that when the markets go down and you’re putting money out of our paycheck every month, every week, however you get paid, you’re buying more and more shares, and the good news for you is that when you retire you’ll be far better off than if you didn’t do this. Put the money in, don’t look at it, get that target-date fund, and I guarantee you 10 years from now you will look back and you’ll say oh my gosh I didn’t believe I could accumulate several hundred thousand dollars, but you’ve got to force yourself to do it. It’s discipline. It’s like dieting.
And Tammy, I’ll tell you that if you want a little bit of help from a phone conversation, please feel free to give me a call next week.
Tammy, just reach out to 407-869-9800, or you can go to our website, financialgroup.com, you can click on the planners, you’ll see Nancy’s picture there. Just click on it and get right to her desk.
Alright, thanks for the call.
Thank you.
Here’s our number if you’d like to join us. It’s 844-220-0965. And this is Vivian. Good morning, Vivian.
Good morning.
Good morning.
Good morning Vivian, how can we help you?
Well, I’m a business owner, and I was wondering how to pay in my Medicare and my Social Security.
How to pay in your Medicare and your Social Security?
Yeah, if that’s possible.
Well first of all, let me — what kind of business — how are you structured? Are you a sole proprietorship, S corporation, C corporation, what do you have going on there?
I’m a sole proprietor.
Okay well when you file your taxes, you’re going to file what’s called a Schedule C, and on your 1040 you’ve got a requirement there to fill out on your self-employment tax. Do you do your own taxes?
Yes, I do.
Okay, well — and you’ve been doing it years?
I have.
And you don’t know how to —
No because my business is not even a year old yet.
Oh alright.
Okay.
I’m new.
Are you paying quarterly taxes, Vivian?
Not yet.
Okay, all right.
Just getting started.
Yeah, so — yeah.
I’m learning. I’m in the learning process.
Okay so here’s — the simple thing for you to do is you go on — if you just Google 2016 1040 — I mean EF <sp?>, you’ll get the payment form for the estimated taxes, and I think the first one is the 18th of April that you have to go in. And if you can give — if you have a good idea of what your gross earnings might be, a safe bet is to figure out what 20% of that is, and then pay that amount, break it up into questions and pay that in quarterly. And you should pay in as much as you should owe or maybe a few dollars less, sometimes a few dollars more.
But the good news for you is — what did you do before this? You were employed somewhere?
Yeah, retail, retail, retail. I hated it.
Okay, okay, alright. You’ve got a little bit of wiggle room here in your first year, but you want to start sending some money aside. When you fill out your 1040, if you could do it yourself, TurboTax or something will force you to answer the questions about your self-employment tax, your Medicare tax, so on and so forth. So, it will pop up for you.
Yeah if you buy TurboTax, if that’s what you use when you do your own taxes for home and business, it walks you right through it.
Okay, I’ve already done that, so I’m already in one direction.
Okay, alright.
Alright.
Good luck to you.
Good luck Vivian, have a great business.
Thank you.
Thank you Vivian, and you can join us as well. The number is 844-220-0965. We’ll talk to Bill in just a second. A quick reminder, coming up in three minutes, Dave Wall in the News Center with more on today’s weather. We’re expecting some —
Severe?
Funky weather. I hope not. I hope it’s <Inaudible>.
It’s supposed to be raining for most of the day now.
Spring Fiesta today.
It is a great day to spend the afternoon in bed.
No, go down to the Spring Fiesta in the market <Inaudible>.
If it rains it gives me no chance to exercise.
There you go.
We’ll talk to Bill on the cell phone. Good morning Bill.
Good morning.
Good morning.
Good morning Bill.
Say, I was wondering — have a question about Social Security and when to take it.
Okay.
My wife and I are both retired. We’re living off our IRAs right now. We’re both about 64 years of age. She’s a little younger than I by a couple of months, and my plan, if you want to shoot some holes in it, I would like to wait and take my Social Security at age 70.
Okay.
And then I would have her take hers at age 66 <?> <Inaudible> full retirement age, and <Inaudible> strict application off of her benefits for me <?>.
Who has the higher earnings?
I have the higher earnings and when she takes — hopefully takes half of mine at age 70, it will be more than hers. <Inaudible>.
Okay.
Okay, alright.
I think you’re on the right track. Here’s what you want to do. At age 66, you file and suspend, and when your wife gets to 66, she can —
You can’t do file and suspend at 66.
Right, <Inaudible>.
<Inaudible>.
<Inaudible>.
Yes.
Yes. Okay, and at age 70, you claim yours and your wife can go in and claim the spousal and let hers grow at 8% per year until she’s 70.
That’s exactly what Bill just outlined.
Yes.
So yes. There’s nothing to shoot holes in, Bill.
Okay, well I was — it’s just killing us to let that money sit there and not have anybody taking it and I was wondering if she could take it — she takes hers early, right now at age 64, <Inaudible> forever be penalized, <Inaudible> a lower amount.
Yes she will.
Okay but you said she’s not.
Correct.
Thank you very much.
Now the other thing Bill is we always caution people on that’s the way to get the maximum amount out of the system. What you also have to give consideration to is health because the way this thing work is that you really don’t get to the break even — cross over the break even point until somewhere on your 80s. So if that isn’t in the cards and heaven forbid somebody has a medical situation, you want to grab it earlier, but generally speaking with Nancy and you have outlined <Inaudible>. Appreciate the call.
Alright, we’ve got a full bank of calls, and I’m going to ask you all — let’s see we’ve got Scott and Betty and Bill and Pat and another Scott. You all hang on because we’re going to come right back to you. We’ve got to get to Dave Wall in the News Center. If you’d like to join Joe Bert and Nancy Hecht from the Certified Financial Group, call us at 844-220-0965, because they’re planning tomorrow —
Today!
It’s going to be great.
We’ll tell you more about an upcoming concert to the Springs, being brought to you by the Certified Financial Group including the Orlando Philharmonic, Elton John, the music of Billy Joel. We’ll tell you all about it after the news at the bottom of the hour, so stick around. Meanwhile, we’ve got lots of you hanging on so let’s get right back to the phones with Joe Bert and Nancy Hecht from the Certified Financial Group. This is Scott. Good morning Scott.
Hi Scott.
Good morning Scott, thank you for calling. How can we help you?
Hey, my question is what do you guys <Inaudible> retirement funds, <Inaudible> I think I’m going to <Inaudible> at 2045. I’m 42. I guess my question is, why would I want to have like 10% <Inaudible> when I’m 30 years away form retirement and just — what’s your retirement as it — when you retire, is it aggressive enough, or is it aggressive enough all the way is what I’m really worried about.
Well my first question to you Scott is are you putting 100% of your deposits into the target fund, or are you diversifying outside of that.
I’ve got — I match out my 401. And then I also —
And as I’ve mentioned before — Scott — Scott — let me ask you this. You said maxing out. Does that mean you’re maxing out to get the match, or you’re maxing out to $18,000 a year?
I do 18,000 and my company puts in like the match, about 52,000 <?>. Then I also do a Roth — a backdoor Roth, but it’s also in a target fund. They’re all in target funds.
Okay. So, you could look at the target fund as a base. Use it as maybe your stable value even though it’s not a stable value fund, but use it in place of something like that because of your age. I would put a percentage into that and then diversify into some of the equity funds that are available to you through your 401(k).
Does your 401(k) have models in it, Scott? Risk-based models, conservative, aggressive, balanced, moderate?
I think it does. Actually, I thought the retirement — the target based fund sort of took care of all of that. I mean I thought it was sort of —
It does but your question was you want to be more aggressive.
Yeah.
The other thing you could do is push out the date.
And then the split would be more heavily weighted on equities versus on income.
I’ve sort of done that. I put <Inaudible> 2050 and <Inaudible> that. I just don’t like dealing with it on a year to year basis or day to day basis.
Well, honestly 10% into bonds is really not that big a deal. It’s a very small percentage. If you’re 90% in equities and 10% in bonds, then just be happy with taking advantage of the target date funds, it’s giving you the management that you need, and if you don’t want to have to monitor it and play around with it that’s why those funds are available.
Okay. Thank you.
Scott, it will work. Just put the money and don’t look back for 30 years and you’ll be glad you made this phone call.
Thank you Scott. We’ve got less than 45 seconds before we have to go to Dave Wall in the News Center.
Alright we’ll do rapid fire.
So, I’ll tell you what. We’ve got Pat and Judy and Benny and Scott and Dan, and I’m going to ask you to be patient. We’re going to go to the news and come right back and talk to you, we’ll give you just as much time as you need, okay. So stick around. Nancy, how does somebody get a hold of you during the week if somebody wanted one of those private consultations?
Well, an easy way to reach any of us is through our website which is financialgroup.com, or if you prefer making a phone call, Monday through Friday, 8:30 through 5:30, you can dial 407-869-9800, and a real live receptionist will answer the phone.
Thank you, we’ll be right back with more from the Certified Financial Group. Joe Bert, the Oracle of Orlando, and Nancy Hecht, author of A Man Is Not A Plan.
Music of Billy Joel here on WDBO this morning. Very seldom do we get to play <Inaudible> rocking music. Tell them the reason why.
There is a reason for the season. Billy Joel, Elton John, May 7th at the Springs community in Longwood. Certified Financial Group is proud once again for 15 <?> years to be coupling with the Orlando Philharmonic to present a tribute concert to those two great musicians. It can be a wonderful night around the Springs down — natural springs in the Springs community in Longwood, we’re going to have great entertainment. Bring your blanket, adult beverages, sit back and relax, and just <Inaudible>. The interest thing is, I learned this last year, the crowd that comes to that are greater — bigger than the seating capacity of <Inaudible>. Did you know that, Nancy?
Wow.
No, I didn’t know that.
They have more people there than they can get in <Inaudible>.
And even sitting on the ground.
Yes.
Well it’s only a couple thousand <Inaudible>.
More comfortable than sitting in the car <?>.
<Inaudible>.
<Inaudible>.
Where can we go to find out more info?
You go to our website, financialgroup.com.
<Inaudible> the concert is sold out right now.
Get out.
Yep.
Get out.
Is there a waiting list?
Well yeah, I have a waiting list.
Oh man, you better — scalp some tickets for me. Oh bummer. Oh well. Hey let’s get back to <Inaudible>. First off, Joe Bert and Nancy Hecht are both certified financial planning professionals with the Certified Financial Group, <Inaudible> just joining us, but they’ve been doing this for like 25 years now here on WDBO, and if anybody is joining us today for the first time, what do you take calls about, Nancy?
We take calls about mostly retirement planning and retirement issues, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, 401(k)s, IRAs, annuities, long-term care, any of the pocketbook issues, and then our practices are mostly centered around retirement planning and asset management.
And remind me to tell everybody about your Social Security workshop coming up.
Okay.
Okay, we <Inaudible>. I was just going to go to this woman who was caring for her elderly mom, and she dropped out.
Oh, poor Judy.
I guess she had to take care of mom.
Okay, Betty in Altamonte Springs, you’re next.
Hi Betty, thanks for calling.
Hi, thanks. If I’m still working after age 70, can I still contribute to my IRA?
Yes. But you have to Make withdrawals.
If you’re — you’re not working for a company that has a 401(k)?
Not a 401(k). An IRA.
An IRA, yeah. Okay.
Another plan.
Yeah. I mean you still have to make the required minimum distributions, so if what you’re putting in is going to be more than what you have to take out, it will be beneficial because you still look at the deduction and that will offset some of what you have to pull out for your required minimum distribution.
Okay.
Okay?
Alright, thanks.
Thank you.
And we appreciate the call. The number again, 844-220-0965. Let’s go next to Dan in Leesburg, and then we’ll go to Scott. Good morning, Dan.
Morning.
Good morning.
My question is about business development companies. We have a significant amount in a savings account that we never use, and the <Inaudible> yields we’re tired of, so we decided to have a ladder of different BDCs. We have about 10 of them. And I’m wondering if it’s too risky to move some more of those savings into these BDCs.
You might be — you know what — BDCs are business development companies, and the challenge is that you’re investing in high risk kind of operations, and the reason that the yield is so high is simply because they’re high risk. It’s a high risk, high reward proposition. So —
If that’s the case, then why are betas so low for them?
Well, beta is tied to some indexes, generally the S&P, so I can’t give you that answer. But I can tell you that anything that gives you an above market return for a guaranteed kind of investment, and the guarantee we always look at is certainly what a treasury bill is. That’s your guarantee. When you start looking at a multiple of that then you’re stepping out into a higher risk — I mean that’s simply the way economics works. They have to pay that kind of yield to attract investments. And some of those work, some of them don’t work. I’m not against them, but to build an entire portfolio around that, in my estimation is a high risk, high reward proposition.
And that is the point that I would make is — it does not matter how fantastic something is, sounds, has been performing, you need a diversified portfolio. You cannot afford to put all your eggs in one basket.
Okay. In fact, we have a very diversified portfolio <Inaudible>.
<Inaudible>.
The situation I’m in is that I’m required to take RMDs, and we don’t need them. So what happens if they land in the savings account.
Right, right.
So what we want is we want a better return than what the savings account can give us.
Of course.
Well Dan, if you’re comfortable with the terms and the rate and you sound like you’ve done your homework, then you’re walking down a good path for you.
But have to remember, you cannot change the basic rules of investing, and that is the higher the return, the higher the risk. It’s always been that way, always will be that way. Now I need to get back to Betty. We told her about taking her — or making a contribution after 70 and a half. Something tripped in my brain, I checked it out and no you can no longer make a contribution to an IRA once you start your RMDs at 70 and a half.
That’s why I asked if she had a corporate one because I thought it was only 401(k)s, but I didn’t want to say.
That is correct.
<Inaudible> you’re wrong <Inaudible>.
I’ve been wrong before. I have been many times. Many times. Always try to correct ourselves.
9:42 on News 96.5, WDBO. Dave Wall is in the News Center. He’s coming up in eight minutes. Of course he’ll take a look at the latest on the big news, and that’s the storms that are heading — well possibly this way. I don’t want say they’re heading this way. I’ll jinx the Spring Fiesta down in Lake Iola <sp?>. Good morning Scott in Orlando, you’re next, Scott.
Hello Scott, thanks for calling.
Good morning.
Good morning.
This is a question for my daughter. She’s married, 30 years old. Has a 401(k) with about $13,000 in it, and she asked me to find out whether she should be considering a Roth or a traditional IRA. Currently she doesn’t have an IRA, period. That’s my question.
What’s her income?
Well she’s married and she’s working part-time, probably she’s bringing in about — I’d say 30,000.
They’re filing a joint return?
Yes.
Okay do you know their combined taxable income? The reason I’m asking is because in low tax brackets — if she’s in the 10% tax bracket I’d use the Roth. Otherwise, I would use a traditional IRA.
But why isn’t she maxing — putting more pre-tax dollars into her 401(k), that’s what I would want to know.
Well — I’m sorry, I probably should mention but she said she was maxing out her IRA — or 401(k).
Okay yeah, alright good, that’s good to know. Okay, so Joe just gave you some great advice.
Yeah if you —
To go with the Roth.
Well no —
It depends on their income.
It depends on their income. I’ll tell you, do yourself a favor, go to Google, Roth, a wolf a sheep’s clothing, and it will tell you about the cons of using a Roth. A Roth in my estimation is oversold, but in some cases it makes sense, particularly if you’re in a low tax bracket.
And then he was saying wolf, W-O-L-F.
Wolf. What did it sound like?
It sounds like you’re saying woof.
Woof. <Inaudible>. Wolf. Woof. Wolf. Woof woof.
Thanks for calling stock, and tell your daughter, kudos for her for doing that. A lot of people her age are not saving at all. <Inaudible>.
9:45, Florida Channel on News 96.5, WDBO.
Woof woof.
I like that. Let’s talk to Debby in <Inaudible>. Good morning Debby.
Good morning.
Good morning Debby.
Hi Debby.
How can we help you?
Okay, I’ve got a question.
Let’s hear it.
I’m retired, <Inaudible> an IRA — a 401(k). It’s not <Inaudible>. I keep playing with it, but basically the market has not been very good.
Right.
It’s losing, you’re up and down. The thing is it’s not insured <?>, and I’m a bit concerned, but my husband is saying it’s been there for all these years since I was working, it’s been there for over 40 years, and it’s not FDIC insured, so why are you worrying about it now. So, the thing is I can’t move it. If I move it to an IRA it doesn’t earn any interest. I mean, IRA CD, it’s not going to earn much interest, so I don’t know what to do with it. Do you think it’s going to be safe there. I mean it’s been safe there for 40 years. I mean, I don’t know what to do.
Yeah, well — retirement accounts do not have FDIC insurance, you’re correct in that, but as investors, there is protection through the Securities Protection Investment Corporation, so it offers some measure of protection in that regard.
But it doesn’t defend you from losses. It only prevents if the investment company goes out of business.
Right, right. I mean, the movements of the markets are the movements of the markets, and if you’re — are you trading it? You said you keep moving the money around. Are you moving it around frequently because fund and fund?
Yes, that’s — when it’s up and I —
Maybe you need to — <Inaudible>.
<Inaudible>.
You need to reallocate less frequently. You don’t need to be trading your account. You need to have a nice investment mixed portfolio. One of the things that we do is to give a second opinion on what people are currently take advantage of, and do some independent analysis of the choices that you have and what might be best for you for your age and your risk tolerance and your income needs.
The first thing we asked, Debby, is do you plan on taking this money or needing this money in a lump sum, or just going to pass it on to your beneficiaries?
I supposed <Inaudible> I have to take a certain amount <Inaudible>.
That’s correct. That’s what’s called your required minimum distribution. But the point is — okay.
Right I take that every year.
Okay. And so your expectation is that you’ll just take out what the government says you have to take out, whatever is left is left <Inaudible>.
<Inaudible> them. It’s been there over 40 years, so why am I worrying now <Inaudible>.
Let me ask you another question, when you take out the required minimum distribution, do you find that you need that to pay the bills, or just going to put that in a checking account and it just sits there?
Oh, I just take it out and use it for what I want to, not to pay bills.
Okay.
So it’s not required — you don’t need it to pay the bills. What you want to do is have a little bit longer term focus on that money because you don’t have any big expenses coming up, and as Nancy said you need some diversification, and you need a second opinion, so give us a call.
Okay. I do not want to put it in annuity, and I do not want to put it in anything that’s like stocks and bonds and all that stuff.
Well that’s fine. I mean we will give you an independent opinion. We’re not here to sell you anything. We don’t have any products. We’ll look at your age, your income needs, your risk tolerance, and the choices that you have available to you, and let you know what we think is best for your particular needs.
Okay.
We’re there to give opinions and information and we have nothing to sell you.
Isn’t that why you stress the word independent?
Yeah.
Well it’s —
And we do this for a fee.
It’s for a fee.
I mean it’s not free, we do it for a fee.
You’re not trying to sell anything.
Go to our website, get more information. That’s financialgroup.com.
Alright, Tara in Wildwood. I love that name.
Tara.
Tara, that’s — what a name. In Wildwood. You hang on, we’re going to give you a full complement of your deserved time right after we go to Dave Wall in the News Center. Before we go to Dave, I wanted to mention that Nancy, you and your colleague Denise Kovatch are hosting a workshop coming up.
Right, we have our Social Security boot camp coming up April 14th at 11:30 through 1:00. Light lunch will be served in our office. You can go to our website, financialgroup.com, go on the workshop tab, make a reservation, and then you’ll also find the information — Gary Abley has two workshops coming up, one on may 14th at 11:00 on financial basis, and then June 25th at 11:00, titled when can you retire. So go to our website, financialgroup.com, the workshop tab —
It’s 9:55 on News 96.5, WDBO. Let’s get right back to the calls here. We’ve got Tara standing by. Let’s get to Tara’s call. Tara, good morning.
Good morning Tara.
Good morning, how are you?
Good morning.
Good.
What can we do for you? Well, I am 58, still working full-time. I had a 401 for 15 years with a company. I have a house and I was trying to figure out if I should try sell — I’ve done a lot of improvements on this house. I’m trying to figure out if I should sell the house or hold on to it. If I sell the house, should I rent. I just don’t know what to do.
Well how big is the house?
The house is probably going on 15 to 20 years.
No —
I’ve lived in it probably — I think like or 10.
Is it more house than you need?
No, the problem — I tried to sell it last summer and I didn’t because it’s only two bedrooms, so — and then I did some renovations. I did tile, the usual things you do in the interior. I was thinking about putting it up this summer.
Why are you thinking of selling it?
Well, I don’t know. I mean, I just — I don’t know. If I sell — I don’t want to live in Wildwood the rest of my life.
Oh. Okay. So that’s why you’re thinking of selling it. Okay, so yeah.
I mean what do you think? Should I sell it or hold on to it as an asset? I don’t know. The only asset I have is that house.
Okay, <Inaudible>.
Well I have the 401 but that’s —
No, do you have a mortgage on your house?
Oh, yeah, absolutely I do.
Okay. Alright, you know what, this is really — it’s a lifestyle decision for you. If you — depending on where you want to move and where you would like to live for the rest of your life, if Wildwood is far away and you’re going to have to hire a management company to manage it as a rental property for you, you would not really —
That’s a good idea —
But you wouldn’t get as many tax benefits as if you managed it yourself. For you Tara this sounds to me like a lifestyle decision, and if you want to be a landlord, then hang on to it and rent it.
Well, I’m going to clarify something. She was getting the same tax benefits as she gave it to a rental — <Inaudible>.
I thought you got more if you managed it yourself.
No, no.
Okay, I stand corrected.
No, you’ll get the depreciation and interest deductions and you can write off the management fee. Yeah.
Alright.
Oh my gosh that’s great. <Inaudible>.
Well maybe, maybe.
<Inaudible>.
I stand potentially corrected, but yeah. I mean it’s really — it’s all about lifestyle, and where do you want to move, and then how can you pay for whatever you want to move into next. I just did a plan for somebody who is making a lifestyle change due to a death, and being able to rent a house that was just under — to buy a place that’s just under 2,000 versus renting ownership, had her hardcore housing fees in half versus rent because rents are so high right now. There’s a lot for you to look at Tara.
There’s another event coming up being brought to you by the Certified Financial Group, it’s kind of sounding kind of like this.
It’s like that. It’s our annual shredding event on Friday — sorry, Saturday, April 16th, exactly two weeks from today. That’s 9:00am to noon, you’ll be able to bring two banker boxes to our office in Altamonte Springs and watch it being shredded right before your very eyes. To get more information, go to our website. That’s financialgroup.com, financialgroup.com. We’ll tell you how to find us and what you can do and how to do it. It is absolutely free.
Alright.
Except for you are limited to the two boxes.
And they’re banker boxes <Inaudible>.
Yeah there are no exceptions.
Alright. Listen, if you’re on hold right now I’m going to ask you to hang on and Nancy Hecht will give you a private consult right after the program is over, okay? Stay tuned right now for Dave Wall in the News Center followed by Florida Homes and Gardens here on News 96.5, WDBO.