Hosts: Denise Kovach, CFP®, AIF® and Joe Bert, CFP®, AIF®
Hello everybody, welcome to On the Money here on News 96.5 WDBO the certified financial group. Joe Bert, the Oracle of Orlando has been on this radio station in this market for many years, and he has forgotten more than I will ever know about saving for my retirement. And his co-host is also here as well, good to see Denise again. If you’ve got a phone call, 844-220-0965, or if you’ve got a question I should say, keep that number in the back of your mind, because as they dish out the knowledge you’re going to go wait, I have a question about that, and that that’s the number you’re going to want to remember, 844-220-0965. Text machine is up and running as well 21232. Without further ado, we don’t need to hear me anymore, the oracle of Orlando, Joe Bert. Joe is up!
Good morning!
How are you today?
I’m doing great, Kyle, good to have you with us.
It’s good to be February, brand new month, we’re already one month into 2017.
Can’t believe it.
Are you ready?
Yeah, I’m ready. I’m ready to work for Atlanta because I’m tired of seeing Patriots win everything. I think Atlanta is going to do it.
You think so?
Yeah, the distinction is is that New England hasn’t faced a tough quarterback all year, and they’re about to face one. If he’s on his game, he’s going to be tough.
Joe Bert <Inaudible>
Well one of the things on my bucket list, Joe, is to attend a Super Bowl and tailgate for the entire week in my retirement, so let me figure out how to pay for that, Joe, how do I get to do it?
Once again, you’d have to know what to do with your money. As we say, you go through life trying some of this, trying some of that. You wake up when you’re 55 years old, and the kids are out of the house, and you’re staring there at Loretta, and you say, Loretta, what are we going to do? We’re about to retire, and we just haven’t got our stuff together. We have some money in our 401ks, we’ve got these IRAs, we went to that seminar a couple years ago, we bought that thing. I have no idea what it is or how that works, but the guy said it was a good idea and that’s all we needed, so how do we turn all this stuff we’ve got into some income? That’s what Denise and I do and the other 10 certified financial planners at CFG do during the day for a fee. We’re here to answer questions that you might have regarding your personal finances, how it might impact the decisions that you have to make about stocks and bonds and mutual funds and real estate and long-term healthcare and IRAs, annuities, life insurance, reverse mortgages, all that and more, so you can any questions on any of those topics or anything else that I may not have mentioned. The good news for you is the lines are absolutely wide open, and you don’t even need to use your real name. So if your name is Daphne or Jack or Victor, or whatever it might be, pick up the phone and dial these magic numbers:
844-220-0965. I can text to you right to you as well?
21232.
Beautiful.
Please keep it to about 160 characters because that’s all we can see on our screen. So keep it small. If you’ve got something a little big, might want to give a phone call. But if it’s just a quick question, a 401k something or another, that’s what the text question is for. 21232, we have the text machine up on the big monitor here in the studio, so when it comes in we’ll see it and I’ll show it on the air so that everybody can see the question and you get your question answered just like that.
Speaking of phones, you ever been without your phone?
You know, I forgot my phone the other day, and it was awesome. It was awesome. I got so much done since I didn’t have anybody calling me and texting me to switch directions like that. That was very productive.
I left my phone in the office last night, and I feel totally naked.
Talk to me about two <?>, because that’s the initial feeling <Inaudible> man, you know, I’m nice, it’s relaxing, I’m not — getting stuff done. I know where you’re going after the show.
Well you’re going back to the office, aren’t you?
Hooked up again.
Well is there anything in the headlines this week that may have — that you may want to tell people about, <Inaudible> headline. Every day with president Trump is going to be very interesting, just seems like there’s going to be somebody going that’s a disaster or that’s a disaster for my 401k!
The market is hitting new highs again, yesterday, so things are perking along. Yeah, you know every day, you turn on the television and the radio and it’s —
That guy doesn’t sleep.
Yeah, it’s amazing. He does not sleep.
Yeah, I saw one in the Wall Street Journal the other day. It’s like 401ks or — it’s not good for your issue, and I’m going, really. How long, and he hasn’t even touched anything yet? Where am I supposed to filter that out? We all hear about fake news and real news. I go, I’m going to try to build my own fake news filter when it comes to my retirement, and do you guys, who I’m going to ask each and every week, what in the headlines that I see that I’m going, wait, wait wait, ignore that.
Well the one thing that happened — actually it was yesterday. He indicated that he’s going to work on eliminating or not enforcing this DOL rule that’s come and gone, the fiduciary rule, remember that Denise? It’s supposed to take effect in April, where people that work in our industry that work with people taking money from retirement accounts are going to have to work as fiduciaries as opposed to a broker. There’s a lot of folks in our industry that have been fighting that because they want to keep the commission stream alive and not work with their clients as fiduciaries as we have at Certified Financial Group have been doing for years. Actually, it’s good for us, but that may take effect and they may put that whole thing on hold effective April, so we’ll see what happens there.
At least put it on hold for a couple of years.
Yeah, that’s what the story is saying. A lot of political stuff going on because the Democrats are going to fight that. I can see Elizabeth Warren right now, actually she’s been raving and ranting about that and <Inaudible> for?
No politics! Before we get out on a row we don’t want to go, let’s get to the callers. Again, the phone number to dial is up, 844-220-0965. Michael in Orlando has a Social Security question. Michael, you’re on WDBO.
Good morning Michael!
Hey Michael.
Good morning. I was listening to one of the financial television stations this week, and one of the correspondents brought up a subject that his parents have taken shares out of the stock market to pay for some medical bills, and their tax accountant had called them and said because the Social Security had been means tested, that meant that the Social Security they will be getting each month will go down. Can you enlighten me on this subject? Apparently it applies to 2014.
Well Michael, what perhaps happened, was because of the capital gains involved and cashing out those shares of stock, it put them at a different income level. Based on income, a percentage of your Social Security benefits could be taxed, up to 85% depending on the income. Their benefits were not reduced, but their benefits probably became taxable.
Okay, and do you know what the threshold is on that?
I believe it’s 44,000 for married <Inaudible> and 34,000 for single.
Wow.
That’s what called means testing. What happens is that if you’re as Denise said, if your income exceeds a certain threshold, then you have to pay taxes on your Social Security. At one time, before 1983, Social Security was totally tax free. That changed in 1983 to what they call means testing, which is one of the reasons why we are not big fans of the law because my personal feeling has been for several years if Roths will ultimately be means tested. But who knows? Is that by numbers —
You’re right on Joe, right on. 32,000 to 44,000 for a married couple, that means 50% of your benefits are taxable, and I’m talking about Social Security benefits. It’s over 44,000, 85% of the benefits. So basically if you have $1,000 bill for a benefit, $850 is now includable in your taxable income.
Okay. That makes sense because it didn’t make any sense to me, but the monthly payment was dropped.
In a sense it does drop because you’re giving it back to the government. Actually they’re getting less Social Security so their benefit does drop. They’re getting it, but then they have to turn around and give it back. At the end of the day they lost their money.
If they weren’t having taxes taken out of their benefit and their benefit dropped, thinking it’s because of the increase in Medicare.
Okay, that makes sense. Thank you very much for your help.
Mike, thank you for the call.
I do appreciate it.
You’re quite welcome.
Thank you so much, Michael. If you want Michael’s line it’s 844-220-0965. Sarah in Port Oro just dialed us up this morning. Sarah, you’re on On the Money.
Okay, hi.
Good morning.
I just had a question. I contribute to my SIMPLE IRA every month, so we max that out every year. But I was just wondering how do I figure out where I want to put that as far as each month.
Where to put your SIMPLE IRA fund that you’re putting in the SIMPLE?
Correct.
In other words do you want some investment direction? You’re putting money in your SIMPLE, and you want to know how to — first, let’s find some things out about you. How old are you?
47.
47, and do you have any other savings or investments?
No.
Here’s what you want to do. You want to invest that money in a diversified portfolio using mutual funds. You’re familiar with mutual funds and how they work?
Yes.
So at your particular age you’ve got 20 some years here before you’re theoretically in the full retirement age. You want to get some growth on your money. So Denise, if Sarah was sitting across the desk from you at your office, what would you be telling Sarah this morning?
Well, on a scale of one to five, with five being the most aggressive, I would close to that five. So a four to a five, but you’ve got to be comfortable with the risk involved. You’ve got to sleep at night, but I agree with Joe that you’ve got a lot of time before you retire, that you need your money to grow. I would be a little bit more aggressive with it.
Look for growth mutual funds, stay away from fixed income from things that have bonds in them. What you want to have is growth. One thing that you may want to look at is just a simple target-date fund, which is geared towards your retirement date. You’ve got 20 years out, so you may be looking at a 2035, 2040 fund, and that’s a set it and forget it. It’s a combination at this point of a high concentration of stock investments, and you approach that date it becomes more conservative so you don’t wake up at 65 years old and the bottom has fallen out. That’s a set it and forget it kind of investment. If you’re going to do it yourself, that might not be a bad way for you to go. Alternatively, you can find a certified financial planner to give you some guidance and coordinate that with anything else that you might have going on in your life. But that’s an easy way to do it.
It’s a target, and then just keep contributing that each month.
And you’re also doing what we call dollar cost averaging. Tell Sarah what dollar cost averaging is about, Denise.
Well Sarah, you’re purchasing shares of a mutual fund periodically, whether that’s twice a month, once a month, or what have you. The market goes up, the market goes down, so when you purchase on a day the market is up and then the next time you purchase on a day that the market is down, you’re averaging a cost over a period of time. So keep doing that.
Actually, Sarah, when you’re adding money, are you putting money in every month?
Yes.
So you are. So just likes folks that may be out there listening and are putting this in their 401k, when it comes out of your paycheck, that’s exactly what you’re doing. You’re doing what we know in the industry as dollar cost averaging. You’re not trying to time the market, because only idiots —
Yes, alright.
Can tell you that they can do it consistently. You can’t do it. Nobody can do it consistently. So what you want to do is take advantage of the natural fluctuations of the market and just put the money in every month and don’t look at what’s going on. In fact, the best thing for you is for the market to drip lower, because the name of the game will be working lifetimes to get shares, and when the price goes down, you get more shares. Unfortunately the stock market is the only market that when things go on sale people run out the store. You really want to run in the store and buy all you can get.
I like that analogy.
So stick with one target fund?
Yeah, stick with a target-date fund, stick it in there for 20 years, and I guaranteed you’ll look back and this will be the best phone call you’ve made in your life.
Okay, great, appreciate it.
Thank you for the call.
Alright, Sarah, thank you so much for the phone call. If you want Sarah’s line, 844-220-0965. Sarah said she was 47, and you said get aggressive. I wonder if she was 37, would that bring it down to a level three or a level four.
No, keep it up there five.
When does it go back?
That depends. It really depends. I have clients that are in their late 70s who are at a four. That’s because they’re sleeping at night and they can accept that level of risk.
It’s for trying to figure out where the gauge is on your level, the gauge at five, but everybody is different.
Everybody is different, and it’s what your time horizon is, when are you going to need the money, because if you need the money in the short-term you can’t afford to be aggressive because when the bottom falls out, and it eventually does, when it comes back over time, you don’t want to have your money invested in something that you think that you’re going to need the money in the short-term. Investing is for the long-term. It’s for the rest of your life. There’s a difference between investing and speculating, and people confuse the two. What we do is investing. We want to get you from here to there, be sure you’re going to be okay. We’re not going to find you the next Yahoo, the next Google, or the next whatever. That’s the difference.
What about medical marijuana, Joe?
Oh yeah.
How many questions have we been getting from people?
Really?
Oh yeah.
Well hold that thought because we got to get to the three big things you need to know. That’s a great tease because I know that’s on a lot of people’s minds, and even I’m going hmm. Denise Kovach and Joe Bert, Certified Financial Group. They are the geniuses on the radio this morning, giving you all all the information they can. All you got to do is call and ask them, 844-220-0965. Texters I see you as well. We’re going to get your questioned answered on the other side, 21232, if you want to get in line for that. Please keep it to about 160 characters, again 21232. Right now it’s time to get to the three big things you need to know.
Welcome back to On the Money here on News 96.5 WDBO, Joe Bert and Denise Kovach from the Certified Financial Group are here in the studio taking your phone calls at 844-220-0965. We are four minutes away from latest news, weather, and traffic from Dave Wahl on the News 96.5 studio. So we’ve got busy phone lines here. Let’s get right back to them. Dennis in Lake Mary, you are up first, you’re on On the Money.
Good morning.
Thank you very much for taking my call. A little history. I’m 70, my wife is 64. We started investing late in our lives, and I’m currently running a small business. She works also and will continue working even after retirement. We have about $350,000 in Vanguard stocks with Vanguard with mixed stocks overseas and local, and we’re wondering at what point do we take and pull back some of the money and put it into something safer that we don’t have the volatility.
Because you have a heavy concentration in stocks, stocks by their very nature as you said are volatile, so you’re going to have more swings on a daily, monthly, yearly basis than you would if you were in fixed income. That’s the basics. Now the important thing that you need to know is how conservatively you can invest that money and still be sure you’re not going to run out of money when you’re 93 years old. The only way to do that is to do an analysis, do some planning. Because we need to look at your sources of income, we need to look at what Social Security is going to provide for you, what you’re currently earning, how long you expect to earn it, how long your wife continues to work, and what other savings and investments that you have, and coordinate it all and then figure out. Okay, here’s where we are today with our savings and with our investments. This is our time horizon, and how conservatively can this money be invested. Everybody is different, right Denise?
Absolutely. The bottom line is, Dennis what?
Tell Dennis what you would tell him if he were sitting across the desk from you as you do with all your clients.
He’s over here, giving me hand gestures, Dennis. Sorry about that. I agree with Joe 100%. You need to figure out where you’re at now and where you’re going to be later on. You don’t want to run out of money before you die, so it’s going to be important to put together a portfolio that’s going to get you to where you need to be.
Dennis, this is what a certified financial planner does. Aside from investing money, we built our company 40 years ago on advising people as to what they need to do. Unfortunately, most of us think that we should understand how to invest our money, how to save our money. But as I say in our commercials, they don’t teach us this stuff in school, so we go through life trying some of this, trying some of that, wake up with a collection of financial accidents, and try and figure it out. The toughest cases that Denise and I work on are clients of what I would call back of the envelope financial planning. That’s simply looking at, okay, this is what we have today, this is what we’re spending, this is what’s coming in from Social Security. We’re going to be okay. They haven’t done any planning and they come into see us six or seven years into retirement and the wheels are coming off. That’s where planning — no I’m serious
Look, I understand.
Dennis, you’re old enough to remember when AAA used to do the trip ticks <?>. Remember the trip ticks?
Oh yeah. Absolutely.
Kyle, do you know what a trip tick is?
No, I don’t, I got to be honest.
Well back in the day, when my family used to drive to Florida, we used to go to AAA, and they used to provide what was called a trip tick. A trip tick was nothing more than a guide if you will that took you from county to county state by state and they highlighted with a yellow marker the road that you needed to take. They would also tell you where the speed traps were by the way in Georgia. You and I are the same age, so what a financial plan is is a trip tick. It shows you exactly what you need to do to get from point A to point B and where the speed traps are and how to avoid the wrecks. That’s what planning is. We charge a fee for that <Inaudible>
You are two for two on analogies. Oh man, Joe Bert is on fire. I love it. 844-220-0965. Dennis in Lake Mary, thank you so much for the call. Joe, Norma, Leo, Sylvester, hang on the line if you want to get behind them. 844-220-0965. 21232 is the text machine because we are planning tomorrow today on WDBO.
Welcome back to On the Money here on News 96.5 WDBO. We’ve got the oracle of Orlando, Joe Bert from Certified Financial Group alongside Denise Kovach and they are here to help you plan tomorrow today. Right here on News 96.5 WDBO, 844-220-0965. Text is open as well, 21232. In case you just joined us, we’ll try to introduce you in just a minute, but right now we’ve got <Inaudible> busy busy, busy phone lines. Want to thank everybody for calling in this morning. Joe in Orlando is up next. Joe, you’re on WDBO.
Good morning Joe.
Good morning.
Thank you for calling.
How are you <Inaudible>?
Good, how we can we help you?
Well, I was just worried because I’ve been <Inaudible> business here <Inaudible> for over 40 years. I sold out about 12 years ago and my money in stocks and the stock market. But I’ve got most of that back now. I have the cash in the bank, and I’m wondering even with my age <?>, I have a savings account. The bankers are trying to tell me that <Inaudible> I <Inaudible> then tells us to keep it in the savings even though we don’t make much interest, if any. What do you think? I have more property for sale but I don’t know how the market is going to work. But I just sold — so we have right now about $300,000 in cash and we have Social Security. Mine is 1,000 a month and hers is 500, so 1,500. Plus I have a — what do you call those things? They pay you until you die.
Annuity.
<Inaudible> 1,600. So between the two of them, that’s about 3,000. Then we have a couple of small things coming in. So we have a little over 3,500 I guess. And that’s about what we spend monthly on average <?> <Inaudible> right now and <Inaudible>
Sure.
We don’t know where to go.
Joe, how old are you again, please?
I’ll be 84 in August.
84? God bless you.
Wow.
And your wife is how old?
74.
74, so you’ve got a 10 years’ difference. Okay. Yeah, you need to get this money growing somewhere for you.
Well we don’t know how, that’s it.
Well, I understand. When you look at what do to with money you’ve got to start with the basics and that’s what you’re looking at, is money in the bank, okay? It’s guaranteed, it’s going to be there, you know it’s going to be there. That’s the good news. The bad news is after inflation and after taxes you are actually going backwards every year. But you have a peace of mind that you know every day you can look at that bank account and assuming that you are not tapping into it to pay the bills, you’ve got the same bank account, right? I mean, that’s the basics. When you move up the ladder, if you will, in terms of potential rates of return, then you’ve got to move away from guaranteed things. And aside from the bank, you also have the ability to invest in treasury bills and so forth. You can lend your money to the U.S. government today for 10 years for about 2.4% Alright? It’s guaranteed. You know the money will be there. So what I’m trying to do is mentally move you up the ladder of risk and rates of return. So you’ve got — so we’ve moved from the bank, we are in the same category, would be something guaranteed by the government. The next thing is some form of guaranteed bond. And those are going to be issued by corporations, they are going to be issued by municipalities, state and local governments. They are going to be issued by the federal government. We talked about the federal government. So let’s talk about bonds now. If you lend your money to a corporation, today depending on the particular corporation you are looking at corporate bonds today maybe 4%, 5%, 6%. You can a high-yield junk bonds, you’re taking more risk there, but you can get the somewhat higher rate of return. Now, if you are looking purely for income, bonds are not a bad place to put you money. And the best place to do that is don’t do it individual bonds, use a professionally managed portfolio using a mutual fund. When you get the income from the bond, the bond fund will pay you income every month like clockwork. However, the value of that underlying — of portfolio of bonds is going to change every day. When interest rates go up like they are now the value of those bonds will go down. That’s the bad news. The good news is, is that income will be there every month like clockwork. And we’ve talked about bonds. I like to use another analogy here, Kyle, it’s like a chicken and an egg, okay?
Okay.
The bond itself is the chicken and the income that you get is the egg. Every month that egg will be there. But some months that chicken will be fat, some months the chicken will be skinny.
Okay.
<Inaudible> chicken, just focus on the eggs, and that’s a bond. That’s what a bond will do for you. Taking up the ladder one more level, if you will, then you can look at equities or stocks. And this is where you’re going to get the most growth over time because they are going to be the most volatile. So some combination of all that stuff is probably appropriate for you, Joe. But you want to be as conservative as you can be at your age because you don’t have time to recover. And how — what else would you add to that Denise?
Well, he’s got a younger wife.
He does. Married a young chick <Inaudible>
Only 74 years old. She could very well be here 20, 25 more years.
<Inaudible> correct.
That’s a long time.
That’s correct.
So I would focus on growing that money in a portfolio that you are comfortable with over time in order to support her.
Yes.
How’s that?
And what you have to look at — Where we would start, Joe, is to look at what your immediate needs are for that cash, which you talked about based on home improvements and that kind of stuff. And then from that point forward to look at developing a portfolio with a combination of fixed income bonds and some stock mutual funds for growth, protect yourself, and more importantly your younger wife there.
Yeah.
So I can’t tell you exactly what you need to do, but generally if you were sitting in our office and working with us as we do day in and day for clients, this is where we would start.
Alright, well thank you so much Joe for the call, we really do appreciate it. Three for three on the analogies today, Joe. Although I do have to say one thing. What if one of those eggs are rotten? You have to look out for that?
No, <Inaudible> rotten eggs. <Inaudible> spend every month that <Inaudible>
Just checking, just checking, just checking, just checking.
The eggs won’t be rotten.
And the chicken won’t die.
<Inaudible> 844-220-0965, 844-220-0965. Norma is in Winter Springs. Norma, you are on WDBO.
Yes, I have a question. When did Social Security start charging extra if you made a certain amount of money more for a prescription plan that isn’t even a prescription plan, but it says it is, but yet you must carry your regular prescription plan in addition?
You’re talking about Part D, the prescription plan.
Yes, I am.
That came in with President Bush in the — probably in 2003 when they made that change and added Part D.
Yep, that’s when —
But why? But I have to carry in addition to this what they are charging me, I have to carry a separate part D plan in addition to the them taking out money <Inaudible> Social Security.
Okay, you’re talking about a Medicare supplement, that’s what you’re talking about the <Inaudible>
No.
You’ve got a supplement that you’re buying from Humana or somebody like that?
Well, yeah, but they also charge — they take out of my Social Security. They take so much a month for a prescription plan. That’s Part D, that’s correct.
And she’s probably getting Part B.
Part B, yeah.
And then <Inaudible>
Part A, Part B, and Part D. Part C is your supplement that you buy on your own. Part D kicked in President Bush’s first term somewhere in 2002, 2003, I can’t give you the exact date, but that’s what that is.
Yep.
But it doesn’t do you a bit of good, you can’t use it.
Well <Inaudible> when you need it.
You don’t need it right now.
That’s right, and you hope you never need it.
Yeah, hope you never did.
That’s the truth <?> <Inaudible>
Insurance <Inaudible>
Alright, Norma in Winter Springs, thank you so much for the call. Leo in Orlando has dialed us up, and that dial number 844-220-0965. You’ve got a question for Joe or Denise? Leo in Orlando, you’re on WBBO.
Thank you very much for taking my call, I appreciate it.
Sure, how we can help you.
<Inaudible>
Well, in 2013 I lost my wife to breast cancer.
Oh, I’m so sorry.
She didn’t live to se her 56th birthday, which was kind of bad. Both of us were the same age. We both worked for the state of Florida and at the time she was medical disability and the Social Security people, when I mentioned — I went by the office and told them that she had passed away they said you need to come back and see us when you turn 59 and that there was a way, at the time, that you could draw the Social Security that she was drawing now, I guess is the real question.
<Inaudible>
Then <Inaudible> go out of business.
No, Leo, let me share with you a couple of things. Number one, there are two things. There’s a — your benefit, and then there’s a survivor benefit. They are both very separate. You want to take a look at which is higher right now. Okay, so if you look at your benefit at your full retirement age, if that benefit is going to be higher than the survivor benefit then yes, at age 60 you can begin taking the survivor benefit at a reduced rate. It’s going to be — you only get 71.5% of her full amount because you are taking it young. Okay? So — but if her benefit is going to be higher than your own benefit, alright, then at your age 62 begin taking your reduced benefit at your full retirement age then take the survivor benefit. Does that make sense?
Okay, yeah it makes sense. My question, I mean, when she passed away, obviously my money cut in half. So I’m looking for any way I can maybe supplement that income if I can. I still work for the state of Florida, so consequently I know that there’s — it was like two to one for every dollar that you made, they reduced it — or every two dollars you made they reduced it one dollar?
Absolute.
Yes.
That will — you know, if it’s over I think it’s 16,920.
Yes, that’s great <Inaudible> it’s almost <Inaudible>
More than that for every two dollars over that, yes.
So you are still working you don’t want to claim the survivor benefit.
It probably won’t do you any good.
It doesn’t do you any good.
But they were right on advising you of that, they assumed that maybe you wouldn’t be working and you are eligible for this benefit, but you wouldn’t want to do this. But I’ll tell you what you do want to do, and there are other listeners, you have a workshop coming, do you not?
Yeah, Leo, Nancy Hess and I have a Social Security boot camp coming up. It’s in April, it’s on the 20th from 6:00 until 7:30 in our office in <Inaudible> Springs. So get on to FinancialGroup.com <?>. We have our workshops listed there. Feel free to pull those up, and you can RSVP right there. So you’ll get a bunch of information, and come with your questions, we’d be happy to answer them.
Thank you very much, I appreciate it.
Thank you for the call Leo.
Yeah Leo, thank you so much.
844-220-0965, 844-220-0965, excuse me, my voice is not used to being up this early this morning <Inaudible>. Sorry, I’m getting used to it. Sylvester <?> and Diane and, hang on the line. We are about to get to three big thing you need to know. We will get to you on the other side. But we’ve had a lot of great questions today.
Some of the basics we look to do when you are retired and planning for retirement, and you guys at Certified Financial Group do some great workshops and you’ve got one coming up.
We do, it’s financial basics for life. It’s coming up on March the 4th. It’s being hosted by Gary Abley, who is also a CFP and CPA. Again, that’s in our office in Altimont Springs. Financial basics for life. Get online, FinancialGroup.com. Our events are there, feel free to RSVP.
What’s the phone number to reach you guys on Monday?
407-869-9800 or 1-800-EXECUTE.
Oh yes, 1-800-EXECUTE, I forgot about that. That’s the easy one to remember. 1-800-EXECUTE. And the website?
FinancialGroup.com.
You know what you guys need next? You need an app. We’ll get you an app, we’ll develop an app. A Certified Financial Group app.
Let’s do it.
Where you download it to your iPhone.
I like it.
Sylvester and Diane hang on the line, you are going to be up next. If you want to behind them it’s 844-220-0965, 844-220-0965. <Inaudible> We have not forgot about you yet. And 21232 <?> is the number for that. Right now Dave Wall’s got the three big things you need to know.
WDBO.
Welcome back, <Inaudible> the Money here on News 965 WDBO’s Ask the Experts Weekend. We’ve got the Certified Financial Group Experts, Joe Byrd, Beside Cobach, answering your phone calls at 844-220-0965. We are six minutes away from the latest news, weather and traffic with Dave Wall in the News 965 news room, so let’s get right back to our busy phone lines and <Inaudible> Sylvester in Orlando, thank you so much for hanging on. You’re on with Joe and Denise from the Certified Financial Group.
Good morning.
Morning.
Good morning, thank you for calling, how can we help you?
This comes back to a question of taxing your Social Security. Are pensions considered part of your income?
Yes.
Okay.
There’s the answer.
But there’s two elements I think we might be talking about. One is perhaps the offset that you get — that you are subject to between age 62 and your full retirement age where you lose one dollar for every two that you earn over the threshold amount of $16,900. Okay?
I’m in my 80s.
Okay, you’re in 80s. Then that, yes, your pension is part of your income that effects the taxation of your Social Security, yes.
Okay, <Inaudible> answer.
Okay, <Inaudible> good one.
I don’t think he liked that answer.
Thanks for the call.
Well thanks so much for the call Sylvester. Diane in Orlando. Diane, you are on with Denise and Joe from Certified Financial Group.
Good morning.
Hi, Diane.
<Inaudible>
Good morning
How can we help you.
Thank you for answering my call. In 2015 I had two IRAs from two different institutions. I took the check like I always do, I put the money the next day into a CD, and then in the end of 2015 when I went to do my income tax my enrolled agent was informed by the IRS with a phone call that we were not allowed to roll two IRAs in one year. One has to be transferred, they said, the other you can take and have a check <?>. I was never informed that by the bank or by my advisor. So I had to close out one of my IRAs and immediately send a check to the IRS which made the retirement account no longer an IRA. Now this year it’s rolling back on me with my accountant on my forms from the bank that I’m going to owe a considerable amount of earned income which has forced me into the highest bracket. And I would like to know who implemented that rule that never was informed to the general public. It’s just really a law.
Yes it is, and unfortunately your advisor should have been aware of that. This is what happens when you deal with salesman. <Inaudible> interested in just rolling over, give me the check, put it in my account and move on and go on to the next customer. And unfortunately you were the victim of that.
Yes, that was implemented a couple years ago and you got hung up in the trap. I’m sorry for your dilemma there, but that is in fact the law.
Wow.
It’s always best to do a trustee to trustee transfer. Never take a check because, as Joe said, you are limited to one per year and statements people forget.
Well, why don’t you give Diane your number there in the office in case she has more questions, she can just give you guys a call?
Diane, you can reach us at 407-869-9800.
Alright Diane, thank you so much for the phone call, sorry that happened to you. Let’s get some more text questions here.
Let me stop you —
Yeah, okay.
Just a head <?> count. Denise and I and the other certified financial planners spent two days this week getting continued education. And this is what separates us as certified financial planners from those people out there that call themselves financial planners and investment advisors, wealth management — whatever you want to be. In order for us to maintain out licensing we have to stay abreast of all this kind of stuff.
Of course
Like we just had this last call. These are the kinds of things that you have to at least be aware of you. It’s going to ring a bell — You may not know the chapter and verse of what it is, but something in the back of your mind says something doesn’t feel right and you prevent a disaster like that.
Yeah.
And this is why you want to deal with a professional. And not to toot our own horn, but this is — we spend time doing this stuff.
And we spend a lot of time doing it.
Really.
<Inaudible>
You know, I look at it like this. The CFP designation is similar to the MD for a doctor, or the JD for an attorney, or the CPA for an accountant. It takes us to the next level. And we have to work at it and earn it.
Well, I know we’re on the radio and everybody couldn’t see your facial expressions when she was telling you that story, but you guys — you looked defeated at yourself and you felt sorry for her. And I wish that was on television because I know anybody that saw that go wow, these guys actually care. And they do. So I’m going to make sure that gets said on the radio today. You know, we’re running out of time. Well, we are out of time, I apologize. But one more time Joe and Denise, the number to Certified Financial Group <Inaudible> everybody.
Yep, 407-869-9800 or 1-800-EXECUTE.
And on the web it’s FinancialGroup.com.
We’re planning tomorrow, today.
