TRANSCRIPT FOR THE July 1, 2017 “ON THE MONEY” SHOW

Hosts: Denise Kovach, CFP®, AIF® and Joe Bert, CFP®, AIF®

Well, happy first day of July, everyone. This is On the Money with the Certified Financial Group here on News 96.5, WDBO. We are taking your phone calls at 844-220-0965 with Joe Bert and Denise Kovach of the Certified Financial Group. Good morning, guys.

Good morning, Tom.

Good morning.

How are you today?

We’re doing great.

Great.

Well, Joe, it’s the first day of July. We’ve hit the halfway mark of the year.

Hard to believe, isn’t it? Hard to believe.

Amazing, huh?

Halfway gone. Before you know it, it’ll be what’s coming up next. We’ve got the 4th of July, then Labor Day.

Which I believe — I mean, everybody’s got Tuesday off, but everybody’s either half day or have Monday off. Maybe it’s a long, four-day weekend.

We decided to give the office a long weekend, and so we’re gone until Wednesday.

That’s — I’ve heard around this office did it, and I think everybody — you know what, let’s just give Monday off. Everybody needs it. Everybody deserves it. Like, okay. So we’ve got a nice, long, four-day weekend, so we could do a little work and a little play and a little relaxation all in the same weekend.

Well, you know what’s so crazy, and you might agree with me, is that, yesterday, it was just Christmas.

Yeah, well, it’ll be here again before you know it.

My goodness. This year is just going so fast.

Well, I mean, even worse, didn’t we have Monday off for Memorial Day last week?

Yeah, even <Inaudible>

<Inaudible>

Time is going by fast. Well, we <Inaudible> That’s why everybody keeps telling me, and it’s like, I can’t even imagine. It’s going by fast now. So you’re saying it’s going by even faster when —

You wait, my friend.

There’s a lot of truth to it.

Well, we’re here answering your phone calls. Why, Joe?

Well, because, just like we said, your life goes by fast. And you haven’t done any planning if you really haven’t thought about what you’re going to do when those paychecks stop some day. What are we going to live on? How are we going to enjoy what they say are those golden years? But, basically — let me back up. How are we going to cover the basics, like gasoline and food and the rent or the mortgage or medical care and all that stuff. How are we going to pay for that? Because you’ll have Social Security plus whatever you’ve been able to save and accumulate over your working lifetime. And unfortunately, most people don’t realize that until they’re somewhere in their 40s or 50s or 60s. And then you don’t have a lot of time. So what Denise and I and the other certified financial planners of CFG do day in and day out, for a fee, we help solve the financial maze that you might be trying to work your way through. You go through life trying some of this, trying some of that, and hope one day it all comes together, only to wake up and find we have a collection of financial accidents. So we are your financial body shop. Bring it to us this morning, and we will try to repair those dents and bruises that you might have on your financial life. And there’s nothing that we haven’t heard before. In fact, if you call in this morning, you don’t even have to use your real name. You can pretend that you’re Jack or Daphne or whatever you want to do, and you can just pretend you’re somebody else because we don’t know who you are, and frankly, we don’t care who you are. we just want to help you. So, if you have any questions about your personal finances as they might revolve around questions in stocks, bonds, mutual funds, real estate, long-term healthcare, IRAs, 401(k)s, annuities, reverse mortgages, all that and more, Denise and I are here to take your calls. And as I said before, on Monday through Friday, we do it for a fee, but on Saturday morning, we do it for free. And the good news for you, if you have any questions on any of those topics or anything else I may not have mentioned, the lines are absolutely wide open this 4th of July weekend. So pick up the phone and dial these magic numbers.

844-220-0965. 844-220-0965. Just that simple. We also have the text machine up and running, as well, 21232. Just had to double-check the monitor. Yes, it is up and running, 21232. We just ask you to keep to about 160 characters. That’s all we can see on our screen. So 21232 for the text line. Denise Kovach is here with the topic of the day, common IRA mistakes.

Yeah, and these are things that some people won’t even think about. One common mistake occurs, Kyle, when an IRA owner fails to name a beneficiary. Unlike other property, IRAs do not pass by will. They pass according to the IRA’s beneficiary. It’s that easy to <Inaudible>

When you see people sitting around thinking, well, I’ve got all that done. I did my will. And then I think I took one step — I’ve got a trust, so everything is done. But what you say is very important because that IRA beneficiary is key.

Right. So that beneficiary designation form is going to be important to you because, if there’s no named beneficiary, the default beneficiary will generally be the owner’s estate. And then that IRA is subject to probate. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have been. Your beneficiary won’t be able to stretch distributions over their lifetime, so that’s knocked out of the picture. And you want to make sure your beneficiary information is accurate because you want to avoid, probably, making distributions to unintended beneficiaries, like an ex-spouse, perhaps.

That’s it.

That gets messy.

Yeah, it really does. So be careful there. Another mistake is failing to take your required minimum distributions beginning at age 70 and a half. Failing to do so can lead to a very stiff 50% penalty. This includes taking your RMD from any inherited IRAs you may have, as well. Now, while Roth IRAs aren’t subject to RMDs during the owner’s lifetime, if they pass away and leave it to a non-spouse beneficiary, then that person will then be required to take distributions based on their own life expectancy.

Now, you used RMD. What does RMD mean?

Required minimum distribution.

There you go. And where does that come from? How do we know how much to take out?

Well, it’s a calculation based on your age, and there’s a table. It’s called the uniform table.

The uniform table.

And there’s also another table if you’ve got a spouse that’s more than 10 years younger than you.

Oh, okay.

But it’s something that’s calculated every year.

It’s something you can plan for easily, yeah.

It’s something we do for our clients, for our clients that have — we’re managed their IRAs. We do the calculation for them. And then, if you have more than one IRA, then you’ve got some extra stuff you have to do, right?

Absolutely, because you need to make sure you take the distribution based on the pool of IRAs that you have. And it may include a 401(k), which  you’ll have to take separately if you’re not working there.

Right.

But there’s another thing that just came about in the last year or two. There are two types of rollovers: indirect rollovers and direct trustee-to-trustee rollovers.

Tell me more.

I am. Listen to this. With an indirect rollover, you actually take the receipt of the funds, and for the distribution not to become taxable and perhaps penalized if you’re not 59 and a half yet, you have 60 days from receipt of the funds to roll them back into your IRA. The thing is here now, you can only do this once in a 12-month period, and this includes all of your IRAs combined. And it’s not calendar. It is rolling 12 months. So you can’t do it more than one time. They took that opportunity away a couple years ago.

Yeah, that used to be a pretty neat thing. You could have a whole bunch of IRAs and just keep rolling that loan forever.

Yeah.

That changed the rules there.

And one more mistake is contributing too much because, if you do, and you don’t take it back out, there will be a 6% penalty on the excess every year.

There you go.

And there you go. Can you think of anything else, Joe?

No, but if we have a change in the tax law, that’s liable to change, so stay tuned.

I can only talk about what I know today.

It took me forever to learn all those rules, and they’re going to probably change them again. So yeah. But IRAs are a very important part of retirement planning because many people roll out their 401(k)s in the IRAs, and then you want to manage them correctly. And having the proper beneficiary designation on your IRA is very, very important. In fact, one of the things that we talk about oftentimes when we do 401(k) enrollments, and you can have this option, as well, in your IRA, is what’s called a per stirpes designation, which means that, if you check per stripes, that means that that portion of your IRA will flow to that — if that person is not there, it will flow to that person’s bloodline, not their spouse, but their children. If you don’t check per stirpes, that means it will be divided among the remaining beneficiaries. So you want to be sure about how that’s set up.

You know, that term — you know, I couldn’t get per capita, which is split between the beneficiaries, and per stirpes back in school.

There you go.

Those two terms aggravated me to death until, one day, I said, okay, stirpes. Stairs. Stirpes. Stairs. Walking down the stairs and down into the lineage, to the kids.

Oh, there you go. That’s pretty good. That’s very good.

Hey, that’s how I kind of studied, you know?

Hey, whatever it takes. Yes. Some people say it’s per stripes, but it isn’t a misprint. It’s per stirpes, S-T-I-R-P-E-S. You want to check your beneficiary designations. If your intention is for that share to go to that person’s children, not their spouse, but their children, their bloodline, you need to have per stirpes designated. Otherwise, it’s going to go per capita to their surviving beneficiaries.

That’s right.

There you go, everything you wanted to know in an IRA here on a Saturday morning, July the 1st, 2017. If you have a question for Denise, 844-220-0965. 844-220-0965 is the number to dial in. I mean, there’s a lot of people that go on about the IRA because they assume it’s like a 401(k). Well, no, there’s a lot of differences. I didn’t even know that about the will. So, even if you have it listed in the will, here’s where I want my IRA money to go, it doesn’t matter.

Doesn’t matter.

Wow.

Whatever you have on the beneficiary is going to override what you have in the will or what you say in the trust.

Okay. So the beneficiary overrides.

As Denise said, what you don’t want to do is have it pass through your estate because, then, it goes through probate. See, the beauty of an IRA or a 401(k) or an annuity or a life insurance policy is if you name a beneficiary, anything where you have a named beneficiary or jointly owned property avoids probate. It’s those things that you have in your name alone that goes to the probate court. And some people will say, oh, it’s probate. What’s probate? Probate isn’t a tax. Probate is the time and expense that you pay the legal system to settle your estate. And Denise and I have seen cases where this could drag on for years. And the meter is running, my friends.

Yeah, no kidding.

Yes.

And the meter fee seems to keep getting larger and larger and larger these days. So how many times are you allowed to change the beneficiary? I mean, is it one and done on the IRA, or can you change it as many times as you please?

You know what? If you have a child, and he or she ticks you off, you can change that over today, tomorrow.

If you have another child, a divorce, new wife, all that other stuff, <Inaudible>.

But you’ve got to be cognizant to do it. Just don’t forget about it.

And that form, you can have in your desk drawer. It’s got to be on file with the custodian or with your HR department if it’s a 401(k). So you can’t get a new beneficiary form and tuck it away and put it with — ah, ah, ah. It’s got to be on file with a custodian or with your HR department if you have a 401(k), 403(b), 457, all that stuff.

So the HR department will have it in their paperwork based on — and if you were to leave that job, it goes to the next job, I’m sure. It’s one of those things that you take with you.

No, the form stays here. So take a breath. So let’s say you leave this job.

This is why I say — yeah.

No, let’s say you leave this job, and you’ve named your spouse as the beneficiary, okay?

Okay.

And you take another job, and you get divorced. So, whatever is on file here, your ex is going to get here, even though you have may have named the new spouse on the new company <Inaudible>

Oh, that’s interesting.

It’s just tied to that plan.

Interesting. So, right before I leave this job, I’ve got to change it all to me. Well, that’s not smart, either.

Because then it’s going to go through probate, and that’s what we want to avoid.

Well, the number to dial us up, 844-220-0965. 844-220-0965. We’ve got some upcoming workshops, right?

Yes, we do. We’ve got — our next one is basically going to be about healthcare options at retirement, hosted by Gary Abley.

But, but, but, I know you’ve been out of the office. That is jam packed, filled up, no more people, no more seats, no more tickets. It’s over. He is filled up.

Oh, that was — I was just teasing them. They can call in or register for the next one, healthcare options in retirement. That’s hosted by Gary Abley. And then Nancy Hect and I will be sponsoring our boot camp about Social Security.

What are you covering there, for our listeners that may not have ever heard about that?

Claiming strategies.

Yes.

How to maximize your overall Social Security benefits. Do I take it at age 62? Do I take it at full retirement age? Do I wait until age 70? And what happens in between all of that?

There you go.

So come out and visit with us. There will be light refreshments. It’s on July 20th. It’ll be at our offices. And it’s going to be from 6:00 until 7:30. So we’ve got that one coming up, as well. And we’ve got a slew of others that are available to you, and you can see that on our website, financialgroup.com.

All right. We also see that chart, right? Is that one of the resources, the chart for the IRA distribution you were talking about earlier? No?

The chart for the IRA distribution? No.

Yes.

No.

I’m not certain.

I’m not certain, either.

All right.

We’ll have to look.

We’ll find out.

That’s one of the charts you said. Oh, man. Okay, okay.

Oh, oh! I know what you’re talking about, the required minimum distribution chart.

It is there.

Well, no. It’s not going to be in Denise’s program because she’s going to talk about Social Security.

No, no, no. I didn’t see — I meant on the website.

On the website.

Oh, on our website. Yeah. Actually, you can go on our website and calculate what your required minimum distribution is.

Yeah, we have learning center.

We have a calculator.

So I was right. I was trying to give them the benefit of going to financialgroup.com.

There you go. There you go.

844-220-0965 is the number to dial us up today, 844-220-0965. We have two Mikes on the line. We’ll get to those on the other side. Right now, it’s time to get the three big things you need to know.

Welcome back to On the Money here with the Certified Financial Group on News 96.5, WDBO’s Ask the Experts Weekend. We are taking your phone calls at 844-220-0965 with Joe Bert and Denise Kovach from the Certified Financial Group, certified financial planners at the Certified Financial Group. Text number is up and running, 21232. If you have a text question, we’ll get to those in just a moment. Before we get the latest news, weather, and traffic, which is four minutes away, let’s get back to our busy phone lines here. First, let’s start off the Mike in Lake Wales. Mike in Lake Wales, you’re up first. You’re on with the Certified Financial Group on WDBO.

Good morning, Mike.

Hey, Mike.

Good morning, Mike. Thank you for calling, Mike. Are you there, Mike? Mike went to go get a cup of coffee.

This is Mike. Do you hear me?

We can hear you. We have two Mikes. This is Mike in Lake —

You said Mike in Lake Wales. I’m the Mike in St. Cloud.

St. Cloud. St. Cloud. Sorry about that.

Not quite as far south.

Right.

Thank you for the show. I have kind of a weird situation. I heard you were talking about beneficiaries, and I have one of my sons that I do not want to share anything with. So I have a 457, an IRA, and a Roth. So I hope I didn’t miss anything before, but I just wanted to ensure what’s the best way to make sure that I get my wishes on that.

Well, the key here is that you complete a beneficiary designation form for each of those accounts. And on that form, you’re going to designate primary and hopefully secondary beneficiaries, in case the primary predeceases you, okay. So that’s the way you’re going to keep — that’s the way you’re going to do it, just complete the form and submit it to the appropriate company or your HR department and just make sure they have it on file so, when you do pass away, then your wishes will be granted.

Okay. Well, I really appreciate your help. Thanks for the show.

You’re very welcome.

Thanks for the call.

Have a great day, Mike.

All right. That was Mike in St. Cloud. From St. Cloud, we go to Winter Springs and talk to Mike. You’re on with the Certified Financial Group on WBDO.

Good morning, Mike.

Hey, Mike.

Good morning. Hello. How are you?

Great.

Good.

How can we help you?

I’m calling today because I’m thinking ahead in terms of IRAs and Roth IRAs, and I wanted to know is it common, or are there good reasons, to put physical property into an IRA, or is it even possible, like rental homes that you may own or gold bars or baseball cards or anything that you think might go up in value over the long-term?

What you have to have is a custodian that will accept that asset. Yes, you can put some of those assets in there. The challenge is valuing them. Now, baseball cards, I’m not so sure about.

That’s collectible. I don’t think so.

Yes, yes, yes. So you’re probably not going to be able to do that. Real estate, yes. However, you have to be very, very careful of how you do that. And I think the reason people want to do those kinds of tangible things is because they don’t understand the other option that many people use, and that’s investing in mutual funds and in growth industries and investing in companies around the world. So, probably, my guess is, Mike, that’s why you’re considering that. Am I right or wrong?

Well, I was thinking ahead that, if I had rental property that I owned, and it was in a Roth IRA, I was thinking that, possibly, the revenue generated from the rent would be tax-free, as well.

The revenue that comes — yes. In other words, the rent, if it’s in an IRA, whether it’s a Roth or a traditional IRA, you are correct. The revenue will be not taxable. In a traditional IRA, when you take it out, whatever you take out, however you take it out, the rent, including any — if you just decide to sell the property and then take the distributions, that will be taxable to you. If it’s in a Roth, under current law, the income, of course, is not taxable, just like in a traditional IRA, and any withdrawals, under current law, will not be taxable to you. However, I underline current law, and if you’re building your retirement around Roth IRAs, I would encourage you to go on the Internet and pull up an article that I wrote for Kiplinger some time ago about — it’s entitled Roth: A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing, Roth: A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing, and it may dissuade you from using a Roth IRA to build your entire retirement portfolio around. Now, once again, if you put real estate into an IRA, you have to be very, very careful. There’s some drawbacks to doing that. You know, some of the benefits of owning real estate is the depreciation, the interest deduction, the ability to deduct the maintenance and insurance and all that other stuff. Those are all benefits that you lose if you put money into a — put real estate into an IRA.

And you’ve got to be really careful because all expenses and everything have to be paid from the IRA. And, at the end of the day, and this is in the case of a traditional IRA, what are you going to do when you have to take a mandatory distribution and cash isn’t there to take it?

Yes.

You’re stuck.

You’ve got to be careful. It can be done, but you’re giving up some stuff, the benefits of owning real estate outside of retirement.

All right, Mike. Thanks so much for the phone call. If you would like Mike’s line, it’s 844-220-0965. 844-220-0965. We are planning tomorrow with Joe Bert and Denise Kovach from the Certified Financial Group right here on News 96.5, WDBO.

That’s a Joe Bert favorite. He always starts dancing when this one comes on.

Four Seasons, baby.

That’s it, man.

Hey, at the last bumper break you had, you played the Beach Boys.

No, that was the Beatles.

Hotel California.

Oh, and then you played the Beach Boys one before that.

Yes, yes.

You did play the Beach Boys this morning.

Okay, I did.

All right. In any case, the reason I bring that up is because, if you go to our Facebook page, you will find a 4th of July tribute that the Beach Boys have done.

Oh!

It’s great little video. If you want to get in the mood for 4th of July, go to our Facebook page at Certified Financial Group and entertain yourself.

There you go.

There you go.

And just like that, facebook.com, and then just put Certified Financial Group in the top bar.

That’ll do it.

Just like that. Well, welcome back to On the Money with Joe Bert and Denise Kovach from the Certified Financial Group. We are taking your phone calls at financial group, we are taking your phone calls at 844-220-0965 and he’s had some great information just in the first half hour about common IRA mistakes, we may get to those in just a <Inaudible> it’s okay if you just joined us a little bit later in the show, but let’s get back to our text questions here, just so we can get the information out.  Let’s see, what do we want to do first here, Joe?  What is the advantage of a REIT Dividend on a 401(k) if the share price goes down by the same amount?

There is no advantage, there is no disadvantage.  What happens is, whether it’s a REIT or a regular stock mutual fund or bond mutual fund, when that fund makes a distribution of interest, dividends or capital gains, the share price will drop by the amount of that distribution.  However, if you’re reinvesting, basically you aren’t going to buy more shares and at the end of the day, you’re in the same place that you were before the distribution.  However, what you’re doing is acquiring more shares and the name of the game is to get shares because when those distributions occur, it’s a function of how many shares you own.  So when you see the share price drop, that’s something I think listeners need to keep in mind, Denise.  You know at the end of the year where they see share prices drop and all they’re looking at — they’re measuring the value of what’s going on in their portfolio by the share price —

Right.

Which is going to drop when those distributions occur.  You have to remember, when the distributions occur, if you’re reinvesting, you’re getting more shares, be it at a lower price, but at the end of the day, you’re in the same place you were before the distribution.  But the next time there’s a distribution, you get a larger percentage because you own more shares.

There you go.

There we are.

All right, just like that, if you have a text question, 21232, just keep it to about 160 characters and if you want to give us a phone call, it’s 844-220-0965.  Next text question in, contributing to a Roth IRA and you actually go over the salary threshold, what do you do?  You need to take the money out or you can make it a non-deductible IRA, right?

Well, he’s talking about a Roth IRA.

Right, yes, so he has to take the money out, he could put it into a non-deductible IRA, you don’t get — obviously, you don’t get deduction, you didn’t in a Roth, but when the money comes out, then it would be taxable to you, so you have to take it out of the Roth account.

Yeah, otherwise there’s that <Inaudible>, the 6% excess —

Yes, contribution.

Yeah, excess contribution penalties.  Take it out and the financial institution will work with them to do that.  Yeah and then as I said, you can put it into a non-deductible IRA and you don’t get the tax deduction unless you did that in the Roth but when you do take it out, then it’s going to be taxable.

And if you don’t have any other IRAs and you put that in a non-deductible IRA, you can do what is called a backdoor.

Yeah, but you’ve got to be careful, as you know, because if you’ve got a backdoor IRA and you’ve got a Roth IRA and then you want to take the money out, you’ve got a whole mess on your hands to determine what came out of which.  You don’t want to have a Roth IRA that you converted from a backdoor IRA and a regular IRA.  It really gets to be messy.  We had a client that we had to deal with that and it is a disaster.

Wow.

Yep.

So, here we are.

All right, just like that.  And we’ve got another phone call here, this is good, Lewis in Lake Buenavista.

Lewis!

You’re on the Certified Financial Group on <Inaudible>.

Good morning, Lewis.

Hi Lewis.

Good morning, hi, how are you?

Good, how can we help you?

Thank you for taking my call.  Hey, I’m turning 66 in October and I’m getting ready to see what’s the best — is it to continue working or claim at 66?  What’re the advantages?  I know you were going to have a class and I missed that.

Okay, so let’s summarize.  Your question is, is should you take your Social Security at 66 or should you wait longer and perhaps get more money.  So, good news for you is that we have the expert in the house, Denise Kobautz, Denise, take it away.

Well Lewis, it depends on your personal situation.  Are you married?

No, I’m divorced and I’m paying a hefty alimony in which I —

Well that’s another subject hahaha.

Yeah, so, I would like to get that thing and see if I can modify that too at the same time.

Well, the Social Security, if you take it at age 66, that’s your full retirement age and if you’re still working then that’s going to make your Social Security benefit subject to taxation depending on your earnings, so you keep that in mind.  Now, depending on your life expectancy, you know your DNA better than I do, do you have longevity in your DNA?

In other words, are you going to live a long time, Lewis?

Yeah, I hope so.

Hahaha

Hahaha

Well, based on that, do you need the money?  Let me ask you this, do you need the money?

Yes.

You do need the money.

I think he said yes.

Yes, I do need the money.

Oh ok, well hahaha, just making sure.  Well then that’s a no-brainer if you need the money, then by all means, file for the benefit.  And if you didn’t need the money, then if you’re waiting until age 70, then you have just increased your benefit by 32%, so that’s 8% per year which could be huge, especially if you have longevity in your lifetime.  So, you know, taking Social Security is a matter of what your needs are and you personally.  So it’s just — if you want to crunch the numbers, perhaps waiting to 70 would be better, but as you said, you need the money, then there you go.

How about his ex-spouse?  If he files, does that change anything for her?

Oh, absolutely.  Were you married more than 10 years?

24.

Well, she can then claim a spousal benefit, which is 50% of your full retirement age benefit, so that amount at age 66.

It doesn’t come out of your pocket though, Lewis, it doesn’t come out of your pocket.

No.  And if you re-marry or whatever, it’s not going to come out of her pocket, everything is the same for you, you’re not going to even know anything.

And when can she claim that?  Does he have to file for her to claim?

If they’ve been divorced more than two years, no.

No.  So if you’ve been divorced for more than two years, your ex can file for half of your benefit if it’s greater than whatever her benefit would be.  It doesn’t impact you.  And maybe it’ll take some heat off on the alimony.

There you go.

Why?  Would that be affecting her alimony?

No, I’m saying when you go to the court and you say well, now she’s getting Social Security and she needs x number of dollars to live on, so if she claims Social Security then that may help your situation. I’m not saying it will.

Okay, I see.

But the bottom line is it does not impact your benefit.
It does not come out of your pocket.  That make sense?

Yeah, that makes sense and it makes me feel good.

Hey! How about that?!

Woohoo!

4th of July! 4th of July weekend! Making somebody feel good.

There you go, I like it, Lewis.  Good luck to you.

Lewis, thanks so much for the phone call.  If you would like Lewis’ line, 844-220-0965.  Now is as good as any <Inaudible> refresh the dates on the upcoming workshops you guys have.  I know Lewis tried to make the Social Security one, but just missed it, so I know it’s a great resource for everybody here in central Florida.  They’re <Inaudible> for you guys do it right at your office, get off I4, right there at Douglas and 436, right?

434

434! Excuse me.

It’s in between 436 and 434, but it’s closer, the 434.

The 434.

Absolutely. On Douglas Avenue and our Social Security boot camp, come out and learn claiming strategies, how to maximize your overall Social Security benefits that’s coming up in our office on July 20th at 6:00pm through 7:30ish.  That’ll be hosted by myself and Nancy Hess.  So come visit with us and light refreshments will be served and of course we have a slew of workshops that are available and they’re posted on our website under workshops.  So feel free to go to financialgroup.com and look at those and see if that’s something you have an interest in.  Keep in mind that the healthcare options in retirement coming up on July the 11th is booked.

But you can get on the waiting list.

Absolutely.

You can get on the wait list and you’ll be first in line for the next one, that’s a very, very popular one because people have to decide, what do I do about Medicare and Part A, Part B, Part C, Part D, supplement, what do I need to do?  And you’ve got to make some decisions.  So Gary Atley is an expert in that.  He’s a CFP and a CPA.  Just go to our website.  And if you’re on your mobile phone, what you have to do is click on the menu in the upper left hand side and all those things will drop down and click on workshops and you can make your reservation right there.  Absolutely free and leave your checkbook at home, we’re going to give you good information, we conduct those in our big classroom at Certified Financial Group where we have the state of the art audio/visual equipment and you walk away with some good information.

Do you realize my husband just filed for Medicare?

How about that?

I married an old man.

Well, good for you —

He’s a good looking —

He’s a good man too.

He is a <Inaudible>

And a good 20 – 30 years your senior apparently.

Haha I like you, Kyle.

I know, I had to get that in.

But he gets so many compliments, it’s like people find out his age and they’re like, you are not! He looks dog-on good for his age.

He does look good.

Yeah, it’s because you take good care of him.

Thank you.

There was <Inaudible>

Joe, if you’re out there listening to this.

Boy, Denise is getting all type of brownie points this morning.

I need all the points I can get.

844-220-0965 is the number to dial us up.  If you’ve got a question for anybody from Certified Financial Group, 21232 is the text question in, as you head out to buy your fireworks and/or get the yard work done, put the radio on and figure out how to get that retirement finish line safe and sound and nice and comfortable, so you can pay somebody in your golden years to mow the lawn for you.  Again, 844-220-0965.  Denise, do you have anymore common IRA mistakes we didn’t get to?

No, I talked about these.  I’ll just briefly talk about them again.  Name a beneficiary —

Of course, that’s primary.

Exactly.  Use the beneficiary designation form and be sure to submit it to the financial institution or the HR department.  Take your mandatory distributions beginning at 70 and a half.  Otherwise, there’s a 50% penalty on the —

Plus taxes.

Yeah, on the amount you don’t take.  So if you need to take a $12,000 distribution and you don’t, then all of a sudden, you owe the IRS $6,000.

Plus taxes.

Yeah, taxes.  And be concerned about rollovers, indirect rollovers, specifically you’re allowed to do them once per rolling 12 months and then if you contribute too much, get the excess out because there’s a 6% penalty per year on that excess contribution.  So just a little summary there.

All right, just like that.  Well we do have one quick phone call here, so let’s get to them before we get the three big things you need to know.  Joseph in Orlando, Joseph, you’re on with the Certified Financial Group on <Inaudible>.

Good morning, Joseph.

Yes, good morning, thank you for accepting my call.

Sure.

My question is, with the retirement part and the Social Security, I have a problem.  I went to prison for various circumstances, I came out of prison <Inaudible> disabled.  So I tried to apply for disability and all that.  I got my disability.  I am now 62 years old and when I tried to call, they told me that I didn’t have enough time since I have been in prison, that I didn’t have work, so I haven’t worked in the last <Inaudible> or whatever credits that I’m supposed to have.  <Inaudible> being able to retire or <Inaudible> disability, but they’re only treating me just <Inaudible> disabled and not able to retire with the earnings that I had made previously.  What would be my solution to this problem to where I’m not getting sufficient amount of money and my age <Inaudible> still would get from Social Security at 65, it would not matter because I haven’t put any money, etc., etc.  Can you <Inaudible> that, please?

Well, if I understand you, Joseph, you’re just wondering why you didn’t get a bigger piece of Social Security.

Right.

Okay well —

I’m not getting Social Security, I’m just getting the disability.

Well, SSD is Social Security based on a disability.  Basically, SSD does turn into, at your full retirement age, it will just automatically flow into your retirement, Social Security.

But, I think what happens, and I can be wrong here, you’re the expert, but I think what happens is when he hits retirement age, then the SSDI stops and then he slips into <Inaudible> but now he doesn’t have 40 quarters and I think that’s what he’s saying, he’s hosed.

Right.

So you’ve been able — so while you’re eligible to work, the government is saying you’re disabled, so we’re going to give you a benefit, but then when you reach retirement age, that disability stops and it converts to your retirement benefit but you haven’t put in 40 quarters to get a retirement benefit.  I think that’s the situation.  I could be wrong.

And that’s — you know, I’m not an expert in disability and how that works, so I don’t want to give an answer that I really don’t know, but Joseph, I would be happy to research that if you want to shoot me an e-mail at denise@financialgroup.com, so I have your e-mail address and I can respond to you with what I do find out because I’m curious to know myself.

Yes, thank you <Inaudible> because I was wondering whether it was going to kick — if it kicks in automatically, whether it kicks in automatically at my age of 62, I can say no, no I want to wait until I’m 65 or the other where I won’t lose the 30% that you spoke about.

Well that is my understanding okay, this little bit I do know is that when you’re on SSD that you can’t stop it and try to let it grow into your retirement Social Security, that I do know.

We lose no matter what, huh?  Thank you.

You know, Denise, you may be right.  What’s rumbling around in my brain here, that he may still be eligible to convert that SSDI into retirement.  We’ll think about that for a second.  Joseph, well hang on while we’ve got to get the three big things you need to know, but if you want to get behind Nick, it’s 844-220-0965.  Nick, you’re up next right after we get the three big things you need to know.

It is the final segment of On The Money with the Certified Financial Group here on <Inaudible> 96.5 WDBO <?> Joe Bert, Denise Kobautz have been here answering your phone calls and your questions and a lot of great ones today.  We’ve got about five minutes away from <Inaudible> news, weather and traffic, so I believe Joe, you want to follow up on a question before <Inaudible>.

Joseph, his question — I misspoke, that he’s going to lose his benefit. SSDI benefit, as Denise had just uncovered, it’ll continue.  Your SSDI benefits will continue into retirement.  The problem is you’re not going to get any kind of big boost.

No.

And that’s — I think what he was saying, he needs more income and he’s between a rock and a hard place because he’s disabled, can’t work and he wants to get more into the system.  So you’re between a rock and a hard place and that’s the challenge of filing SSDI.  Unfortunately, many people say, I just don’t feel like working and I get a good attorney and I can file SSDI and I’ll get this income, but then you really hurt yourself down the road when you need more income.  So Joseph, that benefit will continue but unfortunately, there’s probably no way for you to boost the amount that you’re going to get.

All right, let’s head to calls here.

Let’s get back to our phone calls.  First talk to Nick, who’s been hanging on.  Nick, you’re up first with the Certified Financial Group on WDBO.

Good morning Nick!

Hey, good morning! How are you?

Good, what’s up?

Good.  Hey listen, quick question.  Everybody’s pretty much eligible for Social Security at 62, right?

Yup.

So, let’s say I decide I want to wait until I’m full benefit at 66, right?  And then something happens and I say well wait a minute, I’ve got — I want to collect it when I’m 63.  I could still do that, right?

Absolutely.  You’ll still take a reduced benefit, but it won’t be as reduced as it would be at age 62.  So the further you get along to your full retirement age, your benefit will continue to grow a little bit.

But remember, if you work between 62 and your retirement age, you’re going to give back money for $1 for every — that you earn over $17,000 so that’s the thing you have to consider.

It’s like for every $2 over that amount, you will be giving $1 back.  So you’ve got to consider that as well, Nick.

Ok, thank you.

You’re welcome, have a great day.

All right, let’s get to John in Kissimee, John you’re up next with the Certified Financial Group, you’re on WDBO.

Hello, yes, I am — we have some extra income coming into the family, self-employment income, so it’s going to be a 1099 and it’s going to be recorded on the schedule sheet <?>.  I am trying to save as much of that as I can into a retirement vehicle that will avoid self-employment taxes.  I can’t.  I’m trying to do it before <Inaudible> schedule sheet and goes into my regular taxes.  So I’ve heard of an individual 401(k), I don’t know if that’d work or not.

Well, the individual 401(k) is going to be based on your salary and how much you’re going to — so you’re going to have self-employment tax in that regard.  Now, you can double that up, you can gift some benefit by adding a profit-sharing plan on top of that, but there is no way to really avoid self-employment tax entirely on that kind of contribution.

So, are there any vehicles out there?  Because I know IRAs, all that’s probably going to be after it’s the self-employment tax only.

No, because it’d be a function of your salary, how those — particularly the 401(k) is going to be based.

What <Inaudible> defined benefit plan, Joe?

It’s still going to be a function of salary.  I understand what you’re up against, everybody looks when you have self-employment tax, how to avoid that.  And you have to be careful in that regard because if you’re not paying self — you know, the other thing that you want to keep in mind is that the Social Security tax that you pay as a W-2 employee, that can be used to offset because you owe as a self-employed person.  So talk to your tax preparer about that and you may not be in bad of shape as you think you are.

Okay, <Inaudible> Joe just — you can see the gears move and <Inaudible>

<Inaudible> problem.

<Inaudible> something else to say.

We just got to dig it up, we only have so much space in there <Inaudible> these years, right?

That’s going to do it for this week’s edition of On The Money.  What’s the best number to reach you guys during the week?

Just reach us at 407-869-9800 or better yet, go to our website financialgroup.com.

We have been planning tomorrow today!

Right here on news 96.5 WDBO.

Dictation made on 7/6/2017 1:09 PM EDT.

 

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