Hosts: Harry Stadelmayer, CFP®, AIF® and Joe Bert, CFP®, AIF®
Hello everybody and welcome to On the Money with the Certified Financial Group here on News 96.5 WBBO’s Ask the Experts weekend. We are taking your phone calls at 844-220-0965 with Joe Bert and Harry Stottelmeyer from Certified Financial Group. Joe, how are you today.
Good morning.
Hello. What can the audience call you about.
You can call us this morning about anything that’s on your mind regarding your personal finances. Harry and I are here to answer those questions, kind of clear up that mind fog about those decisions that you might be making or things you may be considering as we work our way into the future and your planning for retirement. As we say, that we go through life trying some of this, trying some of that, and wake up when we’re 55 years old and find out we haven’t done any planning, and that we have a <Inaudible> financial accidents tucked away, and we’ve got to get it straightened out. Harry and I are here to answer your questions that you might have 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. Monday through Friday at Certified Financial Group we do it for a fee because we are fee only planners. On Saturday morning we do it for free. So if you have any questions about your personal finances, anything that might be on your mind, give us a call. The good news for you is the lines are wide open and you don’t even need to use your name. You can make up a name like Jack, Daphne, Loretta, or whatever you want.
I just want to know how to refer to you <Inaudible> call you on the air. You can say number seven. Okay, number seven in Orlando, yeah, we’ll take that. 844 — oh, go ahead.
The lines are wide open, go ahead.
844-220-0965, 844-220-0965. We also have the text machine up and running as well, 21232. That’s 21232. Keep it to about 160 characters, that’s all we can see on our screen. I’ve got a question in e-mail the other day, why do you always ask for 160 characters. Well, that is the average amount of one text for all the phone carriers. Anything past 160 characters you get charged for two texts. So our machine only sees one text at a time, which equals 160 characters. That’s the way our system works, that’s what it is. So if you’ve got AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, everybody’s covered.
Now we know.
That’s how it works.
Know about that.
But 160 characters, that’s all we can see in the text line. But well gentlemen, Harry, a lot of people don’t know this about you, but you are a big golf enthusiast.
I am. I have been.
We’re talking to former past chairman of the Arnold Palmer Invitational. There was something in the headlines this week that you saw and you let me know, you know what, I have something to say on the radio today.
Well, it’s as many of our listeners know, I’ve been involved with the Arnold Palmer Invitational for over 24 or 25 years.
Started out in the parking lot handing out donuts, ended up running the whole thing.
That’s it. My good friend obviously has passed. In the news this week was just a little article about his will being released to the public. I think it was kind of a shock to me, and I think the take-away from this little conversation is not was it right or wrong, but when folks get into planning, financial planning, estate planning, hopefully all their ducks are in a row. I was quite shocked to see that Mr. Palmer’s will was released, which kind of shocked me a little bit. We never talked really financially. He knew I was a financial planner, but I was a little shocked that his will was released, which becomes public record.
It doesn’t need to be.
And it doesn’t need to be.
That’s the interesting here, who is really do his estate planning. Somebody of that stature has all of his personal situation, and who he favors, and who got what open to the public and there for scrutiny. Now look, there’s no rights or wrongs there.
No, not at all.
But particularly somebody like him who was a very private individual, you would think that he would want to keep that stuff confidential.
So the point here is if you’re doing estate planning and you’re looking at the benefits of a will versus maybe a trust, that’s one of them, is that it is kept very, very private —
If you use the trust.
If you use the trust. That’s correct. Just an FYI. We’ll leave that alone.
Interesting. Yeah, no, that’s one — you would think that. I was like well, okay, if you’re somebody who’s in the public, or even if you own a small business, you don’t want your employees finding out. Even if you own a small restaurant on the corner, you don’t want that to get out. Privacy, trust versus a will.
It’s very easy to do.
Because a will is <Background Noise> people don’t understand this, they think well I’ve done my estate planning, my will, I’m going to avoid probate. But your will is really the instructions to the probate judge. It will go through probate, and when it goes through probate, it’s a public record. So this is what happens.
And when you start looking at the dollar amounts — it’s anticipated there was about 800M of net worth there, another reason to be looking at estate planning because of the taxes and all that that’s involved. There are many methods of doing it. So if you’re out looking for estate planning, consider that.
That’s it.
Well, let’s get started with today’s questions on the phone lines. It’s 844-220-0965, 844-220-0965. Bob in West Melbourne’s going to kick us off today. Bob, go ahead, you’re on the Certified Financial Group on WBBO.
Good morning, Bob.
Yeah, good morning. Thanks for taking my call.
Sure.
The only <Inaudible> I have is my primary residence, okay. We owe about 128,000 on that. We wound up with over 30,000 in our personal savings. I don’t know if I’d be better off to invest that in something else to earn more interest or swap <?> it toward the house, keep like 10,000 and maybe put 20,000 somewhere else. I was just wanting to get you guys’ input on what I should do with that. Because I hate just having it sitting around and earning basically no interest, you know what I mean.
Of course, of course. Well let’s back up here. First of all, how old are you.
I’m 53.
Okay, and you plan on staying in the home I guess.
Yeah.
How far are you into the mortgage. Is it a 30-year mortgage, 15-year mortgage, what was it.
I will have it paid off in about 12 years at the rate that I’m paying, because I’m paying more towards it.
Was it a 30-year to begin with.
It was.
It was a 30, okay. So you’re to the <Inaudible> crossover point where most of your payment is going toward principal and not to interest anymore. So you’ll save some on interest if you pay it off. Now let’s back up here. One of the most important things you probably need to be considering is what happens when the paycheck stops, right Harry.
Absolutely.
Okay. So you’re 50 — how old did you say you were.
53.
Alright.
I mean, I can retire in 10 years, but —
Alright, so let’s look at that. At this point, really the only asset we have is your home and the $30,000 that you have tucked away in the savings, and the savings isn’t earning anything.
Yeah <Inaudible> that are separate <Inaudible>
There’s no retirement plan of any sort. No IRAs, no —
Oh, yeah yeah, oh —
Oh, okay, so we have other assets. That’s where I was — I read a different angle. If there are other assets, this is just money that you’ve accumulated in the checking account that is on and above — you’ve got good cash flow, positive cash flow, is that right bob.
Yeah, we’re good. I mean, we have our retirement account <Inaudible> that’s just extra that I feel I should do something with on that.
Well, we — Joe and I always advocate that you do keep an emergency cash fund available. Typically we look at three to six months of living expenses as kind of a general rule. Now, a lot of that depends on — you’ve mentioned that only debt you have is your home. We get this question a lot is I’ve got $30,000, $40,000. I’m looking to maybe buy a car in six months, what should I do with that money for the six months. The answer is nothing. If that money is earmarked for anything, and maybe in your case Bob it’s not, but if that money is earmarked for anything and you “invest” it to try to get a couple percent more, and this market takes a turn on you, you’re not real happy when it comes time to pull the money out. I do want to make sure that you do have a cash reserve that you can go if the water heater goes or your roof goes. Then certainly if you have that covered, then you may want to look at putting the money aside, maybe a nice growth or growth and income fund because you are very young at 53. You have 40 years theoretically for life expectancy.
Let’s talk about the retirement plans that you’re using. Do you have a 401k at work.
It’s a TSP, yeah.
A thrift savings plan. Okay. Does your wife work outside of the home.
She doesn’t any longer, but she has probably 50,000 in her retirement <Inaudible>.
How much are you putting in your TSP every year.
10%.
What’s that come to in dollars.
About 6,000, 7,000.
Okay, here’s what you want to do. You want to max out your contribution to your TSP. At your age, you can put $24,000 a year into that. What I want you to do is to immediately go to HR on Monday and tell them you want to increase to the max that you can, which is $24,000. That means you’ll be bringing home less money, right.
Yeah.
Okay, so what I want you to do then is take the money out of your checking account that isn’t earning you anything and use that to make up the difference that you’re not bringing home. By taking the money out of your paycheck, you’re immediately getting a tax deduction, saving money right off the top. Now you’re building a retirement fund. That money will grow a heck of a lot faster than it is in your checking account.
Okay.
Alright.
Okay.
Alright, thanks for the call.
Thanks for your advice. Bye.
Bye.
We appreciate it, Bob. If you want Bob’s line, it’s 844-220-0965, 844-220-0965. Jacob in Orange City is up next. Jacob, you’re on the Certified Financial Group on WBBO.
Good morning, Jacob.
Good morning, boys. How are we doing today.
Good, what’s up.
Alright, good, good, good. My question is like you kind of talked about earlier a few minutes ago, I of course am worth more dead than alive. I don’t really have a whole lot going for me. I’ve got a 401k and all that good stuff, but as far as a will is concerned, I’ve got my children as my beneficiary. But as far as my things, like my motorcycle, my tools and whatnot, does that have to be written down in, I don’t know, a legal sense to basically leave to my son. I was talking to your screener, it’s more my ex-wife isn’t interested in my Craftsman. She’s not interested in my small boat. Mostly my son’s interested in stuff like that, my motorcycle and whatnot. Does that have to be so legal or can I just — dear son, sorry I left you. This is what I have for you — kind of thing.
First of all, do you have a will.
That’s what I’m kind of getting at. It’s piddly stuff like that, does that need to be in a will.
Life changes. You know, you might sell the motorcycle, buy a motor home. You might sell the motor home and buy a camper, who knows what. Life changes. What you do is you get the will done, because that’ll kind of clear up these loose ends. Then at that point in time, you can decide who gets what, but then you can attach what’s called a codicil to the will. This is your own handwritten thing that you can write in your own hand, it doesn’t have to be fancy. You don’t have to go see the attorney. Write in your own hand I want to leave my motorcycle to my son, I want to leave my boat to my granddaughter, I want to yadda-yadda-yadda-yadda. Date it, have it notarized, and attach it to your will and you’re done.
It’s that simple.
You can get as specific as you want. Your coin collection, your rings, whatever, whatever. The more detail you have in it, the easier it is for the probate judge to determine really what your intentions are.
Jacob, you said your ex-wife, just making sure. So you did go into your 401k, your life insurance policies, etc., etc. and change the beneficiary.
Yes, sir.
That is a mistake that we see many times is folks kind of forget that, and that becomes real ugly and real nasty at death. Good for you.
Do you have any accounts outside of your retirement plan, any savings accounts, checking accounts, and so forth.
Yes, but my current wife is attached to those.
Okay, got it.
There’s no misunderstanding with that.
I always say this, Jacob: a will is not very expensive to establish, and with a will there are typically five or six additional documents. It’s just not about your instructions from the grave as to where your assets go, but God forbid you get hit on I-4 and you don’t die, there’s things called living will, durable power of attorney. Who pays the bills if you’re incapacitated. There are so many parts to the will, it’s not just about where are my assets going. And for a nominal small fee, you have it done, you put it aside. It’s kind of like the fire extinguisher on the wall. You don’t know if it’s really working until you have to use it. This is another situation where you want to make sure that will is solid, concrete. Put it aside, pay a couple bucks, and it’s really to benefit your children to be honest with you, and your wife.
Now that you bring that up, without actually having a will, I know that she does have — my current wife does have power of attorney if I’m not able to make that decision.
Good, that’s good.
You’re ahead of the game, that’s great.
Just is I just need to have the will drawn up for my —
The loose ends.
The things that are in your name alone are all the ones that are subject to probate. Probate decides who gets what. So, to make it a lot easier, have a simple will drawn and whatever your intentions are at that particular moment. Then, as I said, as life progresses and you get rid of the boat, you buy the camper, you get rid of the camper and buy who knows what, buy another boat, and you want to leave it to whomever, just attach it to the will, get it notarized, and it’s done.
Alright, well Jacob, thanks so much for the phone call. If you’d like Jacob’s line, the number to dial us up is 844-220-0965, 844-220-0965. Joe Bert, Harry Stottelmeyer are certified financial planners with the Certified Financial Group, where we are planning tomorrow today. Time for the three big things you need to know. <Background Noise> Hey, welcome back. This is On the Money with the Certified Financial Group here on News 96.5, WBBO’s Ask the Experts weekend. This is the show we help you get to that retirement finish line with plenty of nest egg money for you to sit back and enjoy those golden years. Joe Bert, Harry Stottelmeyer, right here in the studio, answering your questions at 844-220-0965. 844-220-0965. We are three minutes away from the latest news, weather, and traffic with Dave Wall in the News 96.5 news room. Let’s get right back to our busy phone lines, talk to Logan in New Smyrna Beach. Logan, you’re on the Certified Financial Group on WBBO.
Good morning guys, thanks for taking my call.
Sure, Logan.
Just a quick question for you. I’m 29, I did four years in the Marine Corps. I do collect disability every month and make about $1,500 every two weeks or a little over that. We just sold our first house, I have a young family, and we have about 15,000 sitting in the savings. And kind of piggy-backing off a couple callers ago, I’m just uneducated when it comes to Roth IRAs or CDs or anything like that where if I wanted to invest a little bit, nothing too risky, what would be the best plan of attack for that.
Logan, how’s your debt situation.
Other than our home that we just bought and our truck payment, that’s really all I have. I don’t have any other debt than that.
Okay. You’re contributing to a retirement plan at work, or are you — <Background Noise> you’re disabled, right. You said you were disabled, is that correct.
Yes, 60%, but I still work as much as I can and I do have a job, but we don’t have any benefits as of yet. Next year we’re hoping to be able to establish that. But like I said, I have about 15,000 in savings, and not looking to use all of it, but I didn’t know if it’d be smart to take a chunk of it. Again, I’m not as educated as I should be on different ideas as far as investing.
Do you have any children.
I have one, a son. He’s four years old.
Four years old, okay. Here’s what we need to look at first and foremost is insurance. Insurance isn’t exciting, insurance isn’t investing, but what happens if something happens to you and your wife, and who takes care of the baby, and how do we cover that expense for the next 15, 20 years. Your disability is physical.
Yes.
Okay, obviously it’s physical — not obviously, but it’s physical. It may not affect your ability to get life insurance, or if it does it may not be as bad as you think. I would like you and your wife to consider buying life insurance as a starting point. What you want to look at is term insurance. Term insurance is the most cost-effective way to buy insurance. You have a four-year-old; look at a 15 or 20-year policy to get him through those grown-up years and perhaps through college. You’ll need more life insurance than what you think, but the good news is at your age, it should be relatively inexpensive. From then, you’ll want to look at setting up an individual retirement account.
Perhaps an IRA or potentially a Roth. You’re 29 years old, so I believe it’s — what is it, 5,500 this year. I believe it’s $5,500. You could put that aside. You don’t have to fund it all at once, you can put it in monthly, you can do it quarterly, however you feel comfortable doing that. I typically recommend if you’re just starting out and you’re not looking to go to a financial planner and get some information, many times just go on to Vanguard. It’s a wonderful, wonderful website. Take a look at the different mutual funds. It’s very easy to set up. You print the application, set up a Roth. The beauty of the Roth is again it can grow for you tax-free over the years. Or if you’re looking for the deduction in the current year, you can set up a regular individual IRA. You can do one for yourself and for your wife as well.
Okay.
You’re looking at 5,500 between the two of you, we just took care of $11,000 of the $15,000 for you.
Well, Logan, thanks so much for the phone call. If you want Logan’s line, it’s 844-220-0965. If Logan wanted to give you guys a call this week, what’s the number to do that.
407-869-9800. 407-869-9800 will take you right to our switch board. We’d love to meet with you if you have a pressing need.
Go to the website, financialgroup.com.
Garfield and Carrie, hang on the line, you guys will be next up after the latest news, weather, and traffic. We also have some great text questions. We’ll get those all answered on the other side, the second half of On the Money with the Certified Financial Group, where we are planning tomorrow —
Today.
On WBBO.
Information presented on this program is believed to be factual and up to date, but we do not guarantee its accuracy and it should not be regarded as a complete analysis of the subjects discussed. Discussions and answers to questions do not involve the rendering of personalized investment advice, but is limited to the dissemination of general information. A professional advisor should be consulted before implementing any of the options presented. Certified Advisory Corp is registered as an investment advisor with the SEC and only transacts business in states where it is properly registered or is excluded or exempted from registration requirements.
And welcome back. This is On The Money with Certified Financial Group, a part of Hughes <?> 96.9 WDBO’s ask the experts weekend. We’ve got Joe Burton, Harry Steilmyer answering your questions on the radio today at 844-220-0965. Joe, for all the people that <Inaudible> news, weather, and traffic here, I’d like to re-state <?> what can the audience call you about today?
You can call us about anything that’s on your mind regarding your personal finances. You’re going to have to make decisions either now or sometime in the future about what to do now so you don’t look back five or ten years from now and say, gee, I wish I would’ve known and had already prepared for retirement, because someday in the future that paycheck will stop, you’ll have Social Security, and plus whatever else you’ve been able to save over your working lifetime. So as we say on Monday through Friday, Barry and I and the other certified financial planners at CFG do it for a fee, but on Saturday morning we are here for free. If any questions on your mind regarding your personal finances, the good news for you, there’s still a couple of lines open; all you have to do is pick up the phone and dial the magic number:
844-220-0965. We do have the text machine up and running as well: 21232 is the number to do that. Keep it to about 160 characters. That’s all we can see on our screen. And we’ll get to some of our text questions in just a moment. The other thing you guys do as the Certified Financial Group that sets you guys apart is your workshops. Not only do you get on the radio in <Inaudible> central Florida, you guys invite people into your classroom.
We do, Kyle. We have a nice board room over on Douglas Avenue, and this Tuesday, I believe that’s June 6th, Tuesday, Gary Ably does a wonderful job, and the workshop is about retirement and titled What’s Your Number. As Joe stated earlier, we go through life and we have all these financial accidents and we’re throwing darts and we hope everything ends up working out for us. Gary’s going to sit down and plot out what you need to do. What is your number. What is that retirement number. I know Fidelity — I think it was Fidelity — years ago had this commercial on TV with people running around with this number under their arm. That’s what Gary’s going to be talking about. And that’s June 6th, that’s Tuesday from 6:00 to 8:00. Leave your checkbook at home, we’re not going to try to sell you books and tapes and any kind of a sales pitch; it’s just really good information. And why do we do this? You may need us now or maybe sometime in the future. We want you to know who we are, what we do, and how we do it, and why we’ve been doing it for, what, 40 years in central Florida. So if you’re looking for a seat, go to our website at financialgroup.com. You can go in, click, register, say hey, I want to be there, or you can call our office on Monday at 407-869-9800. That’s this Tuesday, June 6th. What’s Your Number.
6:00. 6:00. 6:00 to 8:00. 6:00pm. And he’ll serve some light refreshments and you can come right from work so you won’t go home totally hungry. Not serving you a five course dinner, but it will tide you over until you get to your favorite restaurant or get home. It’ll be good information, and hope to see you there this Tuesday at 6:00. Go to our website, financialgroup.com, and click on workshops.
Alright, let’s get back to our busy, busy phone lines. Garfield was up next. Garfield, go ahead. You’re on the Certified Financial Group on WDBO.
Good morning, Garfield.
Good morning. Thanks for taking my call. How are you guys doing?
Good.
Garfield, all the years we’ve been doing this program, you’re the first Garfield.
Oh really?
Yes. Yes.
That’s good.
<Inaudible> just back up here. I want to explore this.
Uh-oh. Here we go.
Do your friends call you Garfield or you have a nickname?
No, they call me Garfield.
Garfield. Okay. Alright, Garfield. How can we help you?
I’ve got a couple questions. First one, I owe the IRS about 10,000 and I’ve been hearing on the radio about the fresh start initiative. Do you guys have any information as far as how that might work?
Don’t know about those particular programs. What’s been your conversation with the Internal Revenue Service? Have you had any conversation?
Well, they gave me an option of taking a <Inaudible> monthly payments, automatic debiting the checking account.
Right.
Without <Inaudible> the fresh start initiative.
I can’t speak for them, good, bad, or indifferent, Garfield. I don’t want to give you some bad information, so I do not know. I haven’t either, Garfield. I haven’t had real experience with that. I know that when the IRS is knocking, you listen. So I don’t know where he would go to find out —
Are you having trouble making the payments, Garfield?
No, I’m not.
I’ll tell you what you can do. You can talk to the IRS — what’s called the advocate, and sit down with them, and sometimes they will cut you some slack, and you may want to start there. Doesn’t cost anything to do that. They are user friendly, believe it or not. Irs.gov, go to advocate, and that may be an easier way for you to go. These other services, I believe they’re going to charge you a fee, and of course if they save you some money it may be worth it, but I’d start with the IRS — start with the least expensive way first, and then if not, then you may want to go for those other services. And I’d like to hear from any of our listeners that have had experiences with debt relief program. So let us — go ahead Garfield.
That’s the advocate — you said that was the advocate —
Advocate. Irs.gov, yeah, look for what’s called the advocate, yes.
Okay.
Alright.
Now my other question — I have a question. I’m 55 right now and I don’t have any life insurance, and I’m wondering if I should do whole life or term insurance.
Well first of all, do we even need insurance. Do you have a family, do you have dependents?
I have no dependents, just me and my wife.
Just you and your wife. Okay. Term insurance is the best way to go.
Term insurance.
Term insurance is the best way to go, and you can do that almost online as a matter of fact.
Okay.
Select Quote. Go to Select Quote, you’ll find some rates there to help yourself.
Select Quote. Okay, thanks guys.
Alright, good luck to you, Garfield.
Alright Garfield, thank you so much for the phone call. If you want Garfield’s line, it’s 844-220-0965. Carrie in Orlando. Carrie, you’re on with the Certified Financial Group on WDBO.
Good morning, Carrie.
Good morning, how are you?
Good, how are you?
I’m very good, thank you.
Good. What’s your question, Carrie?
My question is I’m due to retire in 20 months. I’m currently in the DROP program. I also have some deferred comp, like $60,000, and my DROP will be like 180, plus my retirement fund in 20 months. And I know they charge — I mean, the interest is like 20%, and I need to know what to do with that when I get out, because I haven’t sought a financial advisor yet.
Okay, I love that word yet, because —
Yeah. I need one.
First of all, do you have something on the fridge that says, 20 months, 19 months, 18 months? Do you have a countdown clock?
I sure do. I do. I’ve thought about it. 21 to the day.
Well good for you, Carrie. This is the time for you to seek guidance. You have a lot of decisions that you’re going to be facing over the next 20 months, and you can’t afford a mistake. As you walk down this road, let a professional who does it all day every day, whether it’s our firm or another certified financial planner, help you go down this path, because there’s a lot of number crunching that really should be done as far as what to do with the DROP. It’s a substantial amount of money for you, and again, no mistakes needed at this point. So you really want to seek some guidance. We offer a consultation, you come in, it’s very low key, we’ll ask you a lot of questions and at least get you started into the right direction, Carrie, as to what do you do when that magical day comes. And the other thing is, we want to make sure that when you walk out of that office and that paycheck stops, that that money’s going to last the rest of your life.
Exactly.
So it’s not just about here, I’ve got a little bit of money, let me throw it into this fund or this fund or this fund. We need to know how aggressive or conservative do we invest the monies, and where do we put it. So there’s a lot of moving parts here, Carrie. So I liked when you said yet, because at least you’re thinking in the right direction.
Carrie, at the risk of sounding a little self-serving, you definitely want to work with a certified financial planner who’s going to do this for a fee for you. There are a lot of gimmicks out there; some say, well we normally charge a fee, but if you call in the next 10 minutes we’ll do it for free, this kind of stuff. Their real objective is to sell you something. What you want is some objective advice, and we’ll tell you the good, the bad, and the ugly and what you need to do now, so like I say, you don’t look back five or ten years from now. And the fee is oftentimes a lot less than what people think. And the thing that I see — what I see when Harry and I do planning is that people walk out of there with peace of mind. For the first time in their lives they know where they are, what they need to do to get ahold of it. And when you start your retirement years you have a high degree of confidence that you’re going to be okay. Give Harry a call on Monday morning at 407-869-9800, or go to our website, you can find Harry’s smiling face, click on that, and they would love to talk with you.
Sounds so good. Thank you gentlemen.
Thank you Carrie.
Good luck Carrie. Best wishes.
Alright Carrie, thanks so much for the phone call. If you want Carrie’s line it’s 844-220-0965. We also have a couple of text questions here. I want to get to those before we get to the three big things you need to know. Let’s start with this one: What do you think of investment apps Acorn and Stash? Are they safe, and do they have any catches?
Acorn and Stash basically is a way of accumulating some money through apps on these smartphones. I think they’re very, very new and I don’t have a lot of experience with them. I know they can be a little bit expensive, I think they charge $1 a month, so if — Bank of America used to do something called Round-up, and this is kind of a takeoff on that. So if your latte is $4.22, they round it up to $5, they take that money, they put it into a little investment account, and you can select the different investments. So it’s a way of accumulating some change, if you will, as you go through with your all-day expenses.
A lot of us take the change and put it in the jar at the end of the day, you know? You take it out of your pocket — what do you do with the loose change in your pocket?
I have a — you’re going to laugh — I have a bucket it goes into, and once a year in December I go to that stupid coin machine and pay 10%. That’s what I do.
But this is a way to do that and <Inaudible>.
Yeah, that’s exactly right.
They are legit. <Inaudible> it’s a way to accumulate some capital and then you can use it for your Christmas fund.
Alright, there you go. Just like that, text question answered. 21232. Well we are up against the break to get the three big things you need to know. Joe Byrd, Harry Steilmyer are here every Saturday morning at 9:00 on WDBO, but they are <Inaudible> during the week. What’s the number to reach you guys during the week?
407-869-9800. Or our website at financialgroup.com.
And we are planning tomorrow today on WDBO.
96.5 WDBO.
And welcome back. This is Florida Homes — I’m sorry, no, this is On The Money. Not yet, it’s not 10:00 yet. I’m sorry. It’s not 10:00 yet. I saw Tim and Bill walk in and I got distracted. No no no no no. It’s still On The Money. It’s the final segment of On The Money with the Certified Financial Group here on News 9.65 WDBO. It’s your last chance to get your question answered at 844-220-0965. We’ve got two callers left. Let’s go to Rich in Orlando. Rich, you’re up first. Go ahead with your question with Joe Byrd and Harry Steilmyer.
Good morning guys.
Good morning.
Okay, here’s my situation. I recently started a new business, and I’m having a hard time getting qualified for a home loan because I haven’t been in business for two years. Now, with that being said, I draw a small paycheck, and I think what’s going to happen is when my two years is up, I’m not going to show enough on the books to qualify for the home that I really can afford, and I’m just kind of looking for some suggestions on how to go about that.
Well, they’re going to want to look at your tax return.
Correct.
Even though you’re not drawing a paycheck, your tax return hopefully is representative of the income that you’re earning. And if you’re not, you’re a tattle cheat <?>, end of story.
Yeah, exactly, exactly.
So that’s what you’re up against.
Well I mean — well, with now having my business, there are a lot of things that I can —
Of course.
— write off through the business, but I do draw a small paycheck. But unfortunately I think what’s going to happen is at the end of the year they’re just going to say, well, you’re only qualified for a $100,000 home.
Rich, do you have any other debt, because this is about debt/equity ratio. Do you have any debt that we can eliminate over the next year or two?
I recently have a boat loan, but I have zero credit card debt. I have one truck loan, so a small monthly payment on that.
Okay. Well, like Joe said, it’s a tax return situation, and they’re going to — even though you may be drawing a small salary, I think it was your schedule C will reflect how well the business is doing, and all I can say is shop mortgage brokers until you find one that hopefully will help you.
Where have you looked for a mortgage?
Oh, I’ve been everywhere. My credit union, my bank, a couple private loaners. I’ve been — everybody gives me about the same story. I’ve got to have two years just to show them that it stands. But even though my income has actually gone up since my previous job, it’s still — I’m kind of stuck between a rock and a hard spot <Inaudible>.
Well, it’s like Harry said, it’s going to come down to your tax returns, because they’re going to look at your ability to make that mortgage payment, and with the changes in the banking laws ever since the crisis, it’s gotten tougher and tougher, and you’re experiencing that. Wish you well. There’s really not much in the way of alternatives.
Alright, let’s get to number seven. Number seven, you’re on <Inaudible>.
Number seven, good morning.
Yeah, hey, number seven here. I should’ve called earlier because I know you’re almost closing, but I just — I still don’t get the capital gains. In other words, I have to take in the capital gains 1099s, whatever they’re called, and then when I do sell the fund, I’ll still have to pay the money on it. You see what I’m saying? It’s like paying for something that’s imaginary, and I don’t understand that.
You’re talking about the capital gains that are reinvested in your mutual funds, you’re paying taxes today and then you’re going to have to pay taxes again.
Right, right. I mean, it’s not — I don’t have the money, but — go ahead.
Well, basically what happens, number seven, is that basically adds to your basis, so let’s assume that you had $20,000 and you had a long-term capital gain and you had it reinvested and now it’s — it was a $1,000 capital gain, it’s reinvested back in the fund. Now your cost basis is at 21,000, so when you go to sell and your investment goes to 25,000, it’s not the 20 you put in, it’s the 21 you pay. You pay long-term capital gains on 4,000, which is at 10%, and so it does add to your basis, so you really don’t pay twice on that.
Yeah. It feels like it because you’re not seeing it and you’re paying taxes today, but as Harry said, a really adds to the original investment to reduce the capital gains when you ultimately sell that investment.
Joe, Harry, what’s the number to reach you during the week?
407-869-9800.
And don’t forget the workshop, Harry, workshop on Tuesday, Know Your Number. Go to our website, financialgroup.com, click on our workshops, and hope to see you there 6:00 on Tuesday evening.
We have been planning tomorrow today with the Certified Financial Group. We’ll see you next week, 9:00am, right here on WDBO.
This is News 96.5 WDBO with Orlando <?>
Dictation made on 6/13/2017 6:30 PM EDT.
