Hosts: Denise Kovach, CFP®, AIF® and Joe Bert, CFP®, AIF®
It is an Ask The Experts Saturday Morning on News 96.5 WDBO. My name is Kirk, and this is On The Money brought to you by Orlando’s oldest and largest independent firm of certified financial planning professionals, that being the Certified Financial Group in Altamonte Springs. With us this morning we have 2 of the 12 certified financial planning professionals with us: Denise Kovach and Joe Bert. Good morning, both of you.
Good morning!
Good morning!
How are you?
Good, how are you?
It’s nice outside today. It’s nice to have you with us today. Joe, in case anybody may be new to the program, what are you and Denise here for?
Denise and I are here to clear up the financial plow <?> that might be in your mind regarding the decisions you have them in your financial life. As we like to say, oftentimes as you go through life trying some of this, trying some of that, we go to these seminars, we read, we study, we talk to our coworkers, we talk to our insurance guy, maybe our stock broker, and we wake up one day with a collection of financial accidents, realizing we’ve got to turn these assets we’ve accumulated over our working lifetime to income someday to supplement Social Security and maybe if you have a pension, those assets that you’re trying to accumulate over your lifetime have to be converted to income. These are the things Denise and I and 10 other certified financial planner professionals at Certified Financial Group, <Inaudible> for a fee. We show you what you need to do now, so you don’t look back 5 or 10 years from now and say jee, I wish I had known or jee, I’m sorry I did. And that’s what we do. <Inaudible> take questions on stocks and bonds and mutual funds and real estate and long-term healthcare and IRAs and 401ks and annuities and life insurance, reverse mortgages. All those things we deal with day in and day out. There’s never such a thing as a dumb question, because you just don’t know and we teach <?> you this stuff. <Inaudible> guaranteed, if you are thinking about it, there’s 10 other people out there thinking about it that maybe don’t have the courage this morning to pick up the phone and call. So this is a confessional time and you’re not going to be criticized and you don’t even need to use your real name. Just pick up the phone and tell us what’s on your mind. Not only that <?>. You can dial in or text and how do they do all that, Kirk?
Here is the phone number: 844-220-0965. Or, as Joe said, you can text us <Inaudible> short <?> text at 21232, from your mobile device. Just dial 21232. Or, if you’re so inclined and you want your voice to be heard, you can use the open mic. You’ll find the open mic on the News 96.5 app. Some of the other things we’re going to talk with Denise about this week are some financial moves you want to make as you near retirement and three lame excuses for not saving for retirement.
Only three?
There’s more, but we’ve only got so much time.
Let’s go ahead and start with the three, because I know we can come up with more than that.
We can, but I want to go back to what Joe was talking about as far as people knowing about investments and what to do and how to do it and where do I go and so forth. It simply amazes me that, still today, we’re not teaching our children the investment basics or saving basics, saving 101. Why aren’t we doing that, because it’s merely the best thing to do, to get children involved and how to do all this. I remember my dad trying to help me out when I was younger. I ignored him, unfortunately, for a while. I still think it’s an important topic. But back to these excuses for not saving. When you put off something like doing your taxes or your laundry, you don’t feel like doing it. A lot of people do the same thing with saving. So, according to data from the Employee Benefit Research Institution, 1/3 of workers say they’re not saving for retirement. That’s a huge amount. Bank rate <?> survey shows of the biggest financial regrets, putting off saving for retirement was at the top of the list.
You don’t realize it until it’s too late.
Absolutely. So what excuses are you using to keep you from saving. Is it time? There’s never enough time to do the things you want to do, so why would you spend your precious minutes doing something you don’t want to do. Procrastination will cost you security and assets when you’re in retirement. Set yourself up so you invest automatically. You don’t have to think about it. So what you don’t see, you don’t miss. Have it taken directly out of your paycheck and sent to your 401k. If your company doesn’t have a 401k, then consider an IRA. I bet most of us use auto bill pay for paying bills, right? This <Inaudible> same thing for paying yourself.
You can do it, set up an IRA to automatically come out of your checking account. You don’t see it, you don’t spend it, and before you know it you’ve accumulated some wealth.
That’s right.
Exactly, and speaking of bills, many, many people have the same type of war between present needs and future goals. Common demands included <?> were car payment. All of it can make it <?> challenging to put money aside, right. So no matter how pleased you are, you can save a tiny amount each month and think of it as paying yourself first. If saving makes your paycheck too tight, cut back on the contribution but contribute something. Old age and retirement will never happen? Oh boy it creeps up on you <Inaudible> I’m the age I am and like I’m turning into my mom and dad already. I’m like how did that already happen?
No kidding, my friend. <Inaudible>
It will happen, and if there’s one thing most 20 and 30-year-olds can agree on, it’s they find it impossible to imagine themselves retired. I remember when I was 20 and 30. I was never going to get old.
Before you know it, it’s lost opportunity.
Don’t pay more attention to your present self and dismiss future. Think about it, save for your future, and that’s what you need to do.
You got it.
I’m remembered of that television commercial where the woman says she’s pressure washing the roses.
Oh yeah, putting it off.
Yeah. Let’s talk to Heath at Sanford. Good morning, Heath!
Good morning, Heath!
Hey guys, how are you?
Good.
Good.
Thanks for calling. How can we help you?
Okay, so I just started investing in a 401k from my work about a year ago, year and a half ago. Got about $14,000 in there. I’m contributing about 10%. In 45, kind of freaking out that I’ve kind of started too late and just wondering — I’m thinking about going to 15 and I’m using — I have Principal as my 401k service through my work, and I have a little thing if you contribute more and need this amount of money before you retire and it says I’m only about 20%/22% of what I should be. I just don’t know if the 401k is the right way or get into something else or. I’m just kind of lost.
By far <?> <Inaudible> Heath, the 401k is the first thing you need to attack, and you need to max that out as soon as you can. At your age, the maximum the government will allow you to put in on a pre-tax basis is $18,000. $1,500 a month. That’s what you ought to be striving for. Here’s what I can guarantee. If you do that between now and your retirement age — at your age, your full retirement age is probably 67 and change. If you do that, you will be ahead of 95% of Americans. I guarantee it, without question. Here’s the discipline. You’re going to have to learn to live on bringing home less money, but you’re paying it ahead for yourself. Because if you don’t put it there, it’s not going to be there, my friend. And you get to be Social Security age and all you’re going to have is Social Security. The government gives you an incentive. Number one, you get a tax deduction. Number two, the money will grow for you without being taxed. What do you think, Denise?
I think it’s a great idea. Heath, I do want to ask you are you married?
Yes, I am.
Do you have children at home?
No, not at all.
I just want to make sure you’ve got a good emergency fund set aside.
I do, and that’s the second question is that I have about 25K in a savings account through my bank, which I know is not doing anything for nobody except for barely 1%, and I’m just kind of wondering money just sits there and I make good money, so that’s not the problem — good money for what I’m doing. I have plenty of money I can put into savings. I’m curious whether I should take the 20K or some of the 20K, and of course it’s <?> my emergency fund, but put it into a Roth or other kind of venue or like you guys were saying, bumping up more of my contribution.
Does your wife work?
No, she does stuff on the side <?>, private tutoring.
Okay, first of all, rule of thumb, you should have at least six months’ worth of your expenses in a savings account. I know interest rate is so low, but it is what it is. So, having said that, anything over and above that feel free to invest accordingly. Okay, but take advantage of what Joe, the information Joe just gave you and start shoving away some pre-tax money into your 401k and at the end of the day I think you will be very pleased.
Awesome, <Inaudible> call <Inaudible> my little vacation and discuss some more things and talk about a good <?> financial plan for me.
You know what the best feature of doing a plan, Heath, is? It gives you a clear picture where you are today and what you need to do now and the next 20 years, and then it will show you the end results of that. There is an article in this morning’s, I think it was the Wall Street Journal — it was the Wall Street Journal I was reading this morning — about the calculators that are online. You’ve got one there attached to your 401k plan. The problem with those calculators is they make assumptions that if you put the data in one, you’ll get one answer. If you put the same data in another one you’ll get a totally different answer by a great degree. So you can’t always — you can never, frankly, look at the reliability of that. The software we use to do it is let’s say industrial strength. It is very, very, very detailed. When it’s done, that plan fits you like a well tailored suit of clothes. It takes into consideration virtually everything that has to be considered given reasonable assumptions and also runs what we call a Monte Carlo simulation. Are you familiar with that term?
No, I have —
What it is is basically we stress test it. It’s a probability analysis. It looks at okay, given the assumptions we’re using, what is the probability of what we’re telling you that it actuality happens. And we want a high percentage of that. If the percentage is too low, we have to make some adjustments. Either you’re going to have to work longer, going to have to save more, spend less, make some adjustments. At least you know what you need to do now so you don’t wake up at 60 years old and say jeez, I wish I had known.
You said it.
Yep.
Absolutely.
That’s basically what the benefit of planning is. And work with somebody that does this for a fee, not does it for free, because if they do it for free, chances are they want to sell you something. That oftentimes is not in your best interest. Work with a —
<Inaudible> a long time, and that’s one of the things you guys definitely talk about and I just want to say it’s a great show. I work in auto sales, so I don’t get a chance to listen to you that much, but I had the day off and turned it on and there you guys were. So I’m definitely glad you took my call. I appreciate it, and <Inaudible> thanks again for the advice.
You’re welcome.
Thanks for your call <?>.
<Inaudible> stop in and say hello to me, I’d appreciate it.
Thank you. If you would like to join us, here is the telephone number: 844-220-0965. We have some texts to get to. We’ll do that right after we go to Dave Ball in the news center. If you would like to text us, that number is 21232.
It is an Ask The Experts Saturday Morning on News 96.5 WDBO. Good to have you with us. My name is Kirk. I’m with Joe Burke and Denise Kovach from The Certified Financial Group. This is On The Money brought to you by The Certified Financial Group. We have an open phone line for you at 844-220-0965. You ready for some texts here? I’m 26 years old. I’ve saved 20,000. Now, where do I start?
Well, that 20,000, does that represent her emergency fund, and if so, she’s going to leave it right where it is in a money market.
How do you know it’s a she?
I don’t know. I just feel it’s a she. Let me talk my bit <?> now.
When I read that <Inaudible>
I did.
I wonder why.
You know why <?>?
<Inaudible>
It doesn’t say. It doesn’t say I’m a 26-year-old female. When I read it that’s what came to mind.
Anyway, back to the emergency fund. That’s going to be the most important thing. And if her company, if she’s working. I’m presuming is. If her company offers a 401k, I would begin definitely making some pre-tax contributions to it and would to as much as I possibly could. This year she can contribute up to 18,000, just start plugging money away there. But the $20,000 it depends on if it’s an emergency fund. If not, she can open up an account, mutual fund account, and invest in some mutual funds to give her growth over time. But yeah, that 401k is going to be something she’s going to want to do too <?>.
Okay, Denise. Joe, here’s another. At this point, my wife has just enough in her 401k to pay off the house. House is at 4.5% with three and a half years left. When we get penalized, if we withdraw — I know where they’re going with this. What do you think?
I think they should leave the money in the 401k and forget it. I mean, it’s got three and a half years left on the mortgage, and they’re basically paying their principal, very, very little interest left on this, so you’re just paying yourself back. You take the money out of the 401k, you’re going to pay taxes on it, and depending on age, do we have an age there? Doesn’t have age. You may have a penalty on top of that. We get this question often, on the radio, in the office. We’ve got all this money sitting in our account. We’ve got this monthly mortgage payment. Why don’t we just take it out of the account and pay off the mortgage so we don’t have to <Inaudible> anymore.
Exactly, but what happens? Right.
What happens is — you know!
Oh yeah, well <Inaudible> take $50,000 out of your IRA or 401k to pay off your mortgage, you might have been paying 4.5% on that mortgage, but now all of a sudden, you’re bumped up into a higher tax bracket and you’re going to be paying ordinary income taxes on that amount, which I can promise you is more than 4.5%.
That you’re <?> going to take out.
You’re going to lose the taxes <?> from a deferral you have in your IRA or 401k.
Right, and then what happens? You’re no longer making a mortgage payment, so now you have this extra money coming in sitting in your checking account and where does it go? It goes on stuff, and stuff isn’t going to cover your expenses when you retire. That’s why you need to leave it in your 401k plan, let it grow, and be smart about it.
Dave Ball is in the news center, he’s coming up in just a couple of minutes with the top stories. Hang on. Here’s another text for you, Joe and Denise. Is it usually always best to roll over a 401k even if one has a better return on funds? One has 30K. The other has 60K.
That depends. They’re outside — 401ks offer limited investment options. It’s just the way they’re set up. So, outside of that arena, you have access to a wide array of mutual funds. And good funds with perhaps better returns and better quality and so forth. I can’t say definitely yes, but depending on the person, depending on the funds available to him or her within the 401k, yeah. Typically speaking, it’s better to roll them out because of the choices there. We have a text here that I’m going to hold on until we come back from the news center. It’s about Social Security, and you and your colleague, Nancy <?>, have a Social Security boot camp coming up, don’t you?
Well, we just had one this week. It was quite well attended. We had a good time there. Our next one is October —
October 20!
Mhm. And it’s going to be in our office at 6:00 in the evening. So, come on down. You can get online at Financialgroup.com if you want to RSVP, and again, that’s October 20 at 6:00pm.
We’ll tell you all about it and what’s going to be in that Social Security boot camp.
And we’ve got one today, starting at 11:00 <?>. We’ll give you the details after the break.
<Inaudible>
He’s back at it.
Alright, stick around. That’s coming up — that’s going on this morning.
11:00 this morning. We’ll give you the details.
It is an Ask The Experts Saturday Morning on WDBO. Good to have you with us along with Joe Burke and Denise Kovach from The Certified Financial Group. These individuals are certified financial planning professionals with Orlando’s oldest and largest independent firm of certified financial planning professionals, The Certified Financial Group.
It just dawned on me, if I can digress for just a minute. You threw out the term certified financial planner, and we hear it all the time. So what’s the difference? What makes Certified Financial Group of certified financial planners different than anybody else out there that call themselves every other thing you can think of, which you can —
Financial advisors, for instance.
Financial advisor <?> is a generic term. You can have a business card printed tomorrow and call yourself a financial advisor.
I’ve been doing a show so many years I can do that.
I thought you already did that.
Haha.
Anyway, that is one of the challenges we have in our profession is because it’s regulated but it’s very loosey goosey, and there’s a lot of folks out there that call themselves some official sounding kinds of names, but they haven’t matriculated <?> if you will through the course regimen that The Certified Financial Planners board puts certified financial planners through. So if you want to really know the difference between the certified financial planners, CFP, and everybody else out there that espouses to provide financial advice, go to our website. That’s Financialgroup.com. And click on certified financial planner or CFP FAQ, frequently asked questions. It will answer the questions about what distinguishes a certified financial planner professional from everybody else out there that wants to sell you something.
Absolutely. I considered a masters degree in retirement planning, financial planning, because of the segments <?> we had to study, the time it took to do so, The exam for goodness sake was a 10-hour exam and it took two days to go — to do it.
And it has about a 50% pass rate.
Yep.
To it.
And they say if you don’t pass it the first time, you probably won’t pass it a second time because you’re spent.
You’re freaked out. Yeah, it is — it is a — but it’s good. I mean, that’s what you need to do because you’re working with people’s lives, their futures, and their children’s futures that you need to understand what’s involved. And, you know, there’s no way that you or I or anyone can have all that knowledge in our head, but at least we can recognize a problem and we can find what a solution is. We’re not walking encyclopedias, although some people think when they hear us on the radio in the morning, but we are certainly not. But the important thing is is that we know — we can spot a problem. We can — and we have — then we have the resources in which to analyze. I was talking earlier about our, you know, the industrial strength software that we use today. You got to know how to use that stuff, because junk in and junk out. And this is where a certified financial planner, and I know it sounds like we’re tooting out own horn, but every day now, I turn on the radio and there’s more and more people out there professing to do this and do that and yada yada, and there’s one — I’m not going to get into specifics, but folks — and there are wonderful certified financial planners all over the country, including here in central Florida. We just happen to have 12 in our office. But if you’re going to do financial planning, have — work with somebody that’s going to do it for a fee for you and deal with a certified financial planning professional.
Yeah.
And one of the benefits of having the 12 CFPs in our office and one that I really like is I don’t claim to know everything. I don’t. But I do know somebody who does know something that I don’t know.
Right down the hall.
Absolutely.
So there’s resources like Joe said, right underneath our roof that we can find out stuff and we work together as a team even though we’re very independent. So speaking of resources, one of our writers is not only a CFP but he’s also a CPA —
Yep.
Who is right across from you. Gary Ably, this morning, is holding his Countdown to Retirement workshop. And he said to let you all know that he has a couple seats available. So if you’d like to drop on by, you’re welcome to do that. No need to call and make a reservation. It’s at our office at Altamont Springs. Leave your checkbook at home. I guarantee you he’s not going to try to sell you something, but he’s going to give you some information to keep you from making perhaps one of those fatal mistakes that we often see walking into our office. And we do this, folks, frankly, to give you information, and secondly, to introduce you to what we do as fee financial planners and how we work and whether you’re looking for financial planning now or sometime in the future, perhaps it’ll give us an opportunity to earn your business. So, that’s going on in our office this morning at 11:00. He’s going to serve a light — a light lunch, and you’re welcome to drop in if you want more information. So, if you go to our website, that’s financialgroup.com, you can pick it up on your mobile phone there and click on workshops, and there’s a map to our office. And also Denise has gone one that you’re supposed to be doing again in October.
Oh, absolutely, our boot camp is coming up in October on the 20th at 6:00, and then there’s a couple of other workshops that Gary’s going to be hosting. We’ve got Financial Basics for Life September 27th at 6:00, and Retire with Confidence, and that’s going to be October 25th at 6:00. But as Jared said, you can get on our website, financialgroup.com, go to workshops and we’ll have a list there. You can simply click on what you want, get some information, and even RSVP right there.
Gary’s workshop at this morning at 11:00, what he’s talking about is just a couple hours long and it’s a checklist review if you’re like within three years or so of retirement. And it’s — he’s going to give you one of these Countdown to Retirement checklists as well so you can get all your ducks in a row.
Then I believe he’s going to have estate planning attorney Joey Murphy there as well.
That’s right.
To answer questions that you might have regarding wills and trusts. Do you really need a trust and what’s a durable power of attorney and all that stuff that you’re really wondering about. She’ll be there as well.
Speaking of that —
Speaking of that, I was meeting with a client yesterday, and his brother does not have any estate planning documents in place at all and refuses to do so. He has step-children. He has no spouse. He has no children. And he just had a heart attack but he’s doing better, but the thing is he has no power of attorney. So, what’s going to happen? If something happened, he becomes incapacitated, that’s problematic.
Right.
He has no living will, okay? Healthcare surrogate, will or trust that need to be in place, but I stressed the importance that people need to get their ducks in a row regarding that.
People refuse to face reality.
I understand that.
And <Inaudible>
They’d rather pressure wash their <Inaudible>
You do the Social Security workshop. Let’s take a Social Security text here. I’m 62, retired, and not planning to work full-time again. Should I take Social Security now instead of waiting until 66 or 70? I’m concerned and then the text ends.
I’d like to know what he or she is concerned about. Being retired at age 62, if you did take your Social Security at this time, you’re going to take a 25% hit. So, that means you’re going to get 75% of what you would earn when you were 66. So, and that’s a permanent reduction. So, I don’t know your entire situation. Do you need the money? If you need the money, then that’s a no-brainer. It is what it is. But if you can perhaps pull from your portfolio that you’ve saved and wait until at least age 66 if not 70, because between 66 and 70, there’s going to be an 8% increase on that money. But it really depends on your entire situation. We — are you married? I mean, is there a spousal benefit that, you know, can be had. There’s all kinds of scenarios. And we do this in our office in our Social Security planning.
The biggest thing here, let’s assume that this is the primary breadwinner, and so he take his Social Security earlier. He passes away. His wife is going to get that reduced benefit for her lifetime.
Which I tell you what —
Which is huge.
My male clients are very protective of their wives.
You have no idea.
How do you know it’s a he?
Well, regardless —
Okay, <Inaudible>.
Well, I think that because many of my clients wait until age 70 because they want to maximize the benefit, the survivor benefit for their wives because most women outlive the men.
Yeah.
It is what it is.
Yeah.
So a lot of that happens, but again, with regard to the scenario we were just talking able, we need a little bit more information in order to make a —
The I am concerned part is usually when you get to there is I’m concerned Social Security won’t be there for me.
Well, you know, there’s a lot of data out there. And if things don’t get revised, and I’m sure they will get revised in numerous ways, by about 2033 or so, the trust fund could be depleted. It doesn’t mean Social Security won’t be around, because we’re still going to have people paying FICA taxes, right? So it just means that myself might get a 75% of what I would have gotten. Okay. So I think they’re going to get it fixed. I don’t know how yet, but we’ll see.
I make this blanket statement, I believe this wholeheartedly, the Baby Boomers don’t have anything to worry about. Our Social Security, I would be extremely shocked, shocked I say, if Social Security was adjusted for the Baby Boomers. However, the millennials and the younger generation, you’re going to have to wait longer and probably going to get less, but that’s just a reality. But the good news is you’ve got 40, 50 years to play for this.
Right.
The Baby Boomers that are at or near retirement age don’t have to worry about it. Social Security will be there for our lifetime. That’s the good news.
Well, and there’s going to be some changes, such as the limits on how much of the salary that FICA is based on, I think it’s going to be on the full amount.
Yep, because —
You know, and I right now my full retirement age is 67. Is that going to be the case or is it going to be 70? And this 8% per year, is that going to still be around or is that going to go away?
Right.
There’s all kind of events.
Denise Kovach and Joe Byrd are with the Certified Financial Group and the Certified Financial Group has brought you On the Money for well over 25 years here on WDBO and every Saturday morning, Joe, why do you come in here and take calls about?
Once again, Denise and I are here this morning to answer any questions that might be on your mind regarding your personal finances. The stuff that they should have taught us in school but they didn’t and we go through life trying some of this, trying some of that, and kind of hope it all comes together only to wake up one morning to find out we have a collection of financial accidents and we got to get our act together. That’s what we do day in and day out as fee-based financial advisors when we do financial planning, and we’re here to take questions about anything that’s on your mind regarding your personal finances as they relate to these subjects and more, like stocks, bonds, mutual funds, real estate, long-term healthcare, IRAs, annuities, 401(k)s, reverse mortgages, all that and more. We are here and the lines are wide open.
Yeah.
All you have to do is pick up the phone and dial.
844-220-0965 if you’ve ever wanted to speak to the oracle of Orlando, the number 844-220-0965 for Joe Byrd and Denise Kovach. Or you could text us at 21232. Dave Wall is in the news center keeping an eye on things. He’s coming up in just about three minutes with the three top stories you need to keep an eye on, one of them being what’s going on in Munich. Did you see the New York Post headline?
Yep.
2016, the Summer of Terror.
Oh.
That could have some political implications. Here’s a text for you. Please explain why we pay taxes on our mutual funds yearly and then again when we sell our funds.
Well, you know, we — when we own a mutual fund, we own a lot of shares in stock in different companies —
Or bonds.
Exactly. And the stocks or bonds could be paying either interest and dividends on which we have to pay interest — or, excuse me, taxes on those — on the interest and dividends. Now as far as gains are concerned, we’ve got a mutual fund manager who’s buying and selling within that fund, and when they sell, we’re taking gains or losses, right? And that’s being passed along to us as shareholders. And then when you sell the mutual funds, there’s another capital gain because — or loss, because you might have purchased it for $100 and when you sold it, it was worth $150 and then there you go, you’ve got $50 of capital gains.
But you don’t pay taxes twice. And I think this is where the confusion comes in, because as Denise said, throughout the year, the stocks and bonds that are in the mutual funds are generating dividends and capital gains and interest, and so just as if you own those stocks in your own portfolio and you’ll get a 1099 for the interest and dividends, capital gains, UL pay taxes immediately. If it’s in the fund, you’re paying the taxes immediately, but then when the mutual fund shares ultimately are sold, you don’t pay taxes twice because what happens is your cost basis increases on all those dividend, interest, and capital gains over the time period. Let me give you an example. You invest $10,000. Over the course of five years, you’ve had $3,000 of interest, dividends, or capital gains that you pay taxes on along the way. Okay. So, you invested 10, you pay taxes on three, your cost basis is now 13,000. If you turn around and sell that — those mutual fund shares for 13,000, you pay no additional taxes. If you sell them for 15,000, yeah, you’re going to pay taxes on that difference of $2,000. So, you’re not paying taxes twice. I think that’s where a lot of people get confused, and it’s the way it works.
You know, and paying taxes, that’s a good problem to have.
Exactly.
Okay.
All right. We’re going to go to Dave Wall in the news center. We’ve got Mike from Venice who wants to talk about long-term care. Hold on, Mike. And Carolyn from Sanford who wants to talk about a piece of real estate and what happens to it when you have to go into one of those nursing homes —
Assisted living.
Yeah, or assisted living. And how can you avoid losing it. Well, we’ll talk about that as well. You’ve come to the right place. Stick around. If you want to join us, the number is 844-220-0965 or text 21232.
9:55 on WDBO. Dave Wallace in the news center. He’s coming up in just about five minutes with a more in-depth look at the news, traffic, and of course, your weather forecast for the weekend. We’re in the waning moments of On the Money with the Certified Financial Group, the oracle of Orlando in the studio, Joe Byrd, along with Denise Kovach, certified financial planners both. And we — let’s get to these phone calls before we run out of time, shall we? This is Mike in Venice. Good morning, Mike.
Yes. Hi. Good morning, everyone. I know this is quite an involved question and we have a short amount of time.
Mike, Mike, Mike, okay, Mike, Mike —
But if you have a couple that are retired with one on a minimum requirement distribution and they’re debating whether they should get long-term care insurance or open up annuities since the IRAs aren’t getting that much return, any bullet points or high things we should think about before speaking with our financial advisor as to these two things, long-term care and annuity?
Well, first of all, you need a statement that isn’t categorically correct, that IRAs aren’t getting that great of return. it all depends on how the IRA is invested. Now, certainly, if you have it in some bank product, that’s probably true, because you’re getting 1% range, but maybe that IRA needs to be diversified. You want to consider long-term care because that will eat into your nest egg quicker than anything. Unfortunately, it’s not inexpensive, particularly when you’re already in your retirement years, depending on your health. There are some new products out there that are very, very attractive. I would get together with a certified financial planner, have him or her look at your situation, and then make specific recommendations.
And real quick, are you listening to us in Venice?
Yes, I’m on iHeartRadio.
Aw.
Well, there you go.
Well, thanks for tuning in. I appreciate the call. But talk with a certified financial planner and he or her will look into your situation and devise something that’ll work for.
Thanks, Byrd.
You’re welcome.
Venice, Italy or Venice, Florida?
Florida.
Oh, okay.
I was wondering if the guys were outside singing or not. You know what I’m saying?
All right. Let’s see if we can squeeze in a call from Carolyn in Sanford. Carolyn, go ahead. Carolyn.
Hey there. I am looking at protecting my home as an asset for when I go into say retirement center if I was to do that, and I am not sure how to strategize to keep it in my family.
Okay. So what you’re telling me is that what you don’t want to have happen is go into the nursing home and then you die in the nursing home and then the state comes along and takes your house.
No. Let’s say there’s a retirement center and they look at your past 10 years of assets and they’re looking at you’re now going to live there, you’re still mobile, you don’t necessarily need all the care —
Okay. So you’re saying —
But I understand there’s <Inaudible> go ahead.
You’re talking about independent living.
Yes.
And then ultimately that independent turns into assisted living and then that assisted living turns into nursing home.
Yes.
Okay. So, what you’re saying is how to hide that asset that you might have?
Not necessarily hide it as much as, well, maybe that’s what you’re calling it, but how do I keep it in my family without it being an asset that they’d say turn that over to us as part of — you know, we have a $150,000 fee for you to enter in here, it’s going to be so much a month and —
Right. Yeah, well there’s no — if you’re going to go into that kind of situation, there’s no way to avoid — they’re not going to give you any credit or say, you know, you’re impoverished, you don’t have any assets, we’re going to waive the fee. There’s no way around that.
I think she’s referring to Medicaid.
No, I feel she’s not. I think what you’re talking about is going into one of these nice, very nice independent living facilities where they ask for a lot of money upfront, because you know, where they require so so much and but you can’t hide your assets and say I don’t have any money.
Basically, they’re not going to give you a break. I mean, you either have the money or you don’t.
Okay. We are plumb out of time, folks. I’m going to ask Tonya to hang on and get a private consult off the air with Denise Kovach. Joe, how do folks you reach you at the Certified Financial Group?
The best way to do that is go to our website, financialgroup.com, financialgroup.com. You can get our bios on there. You can learn about what we do as financial planners. Go to the CFP frequently asked questions and find out how we’re different from