Financial Lessons learned in 2023. Now what | TRANSCRIPT

(00:00):
Information presented on this program is believed to be factual and UpToDate, 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.

(00:34):
Stay tuned for on the Money Central Florida’s most listened to financial call and show brought to you by Certified Financial Group in Altamont Springs. It’s the only show hosted exclusively by certified financial planner professionals. Monday through Friday, their CFPs provide financial planning and investment advice for a fee. But on Saturdays, the advice is absolutely free and has been for more than 30 years. For their WDBO listeners, if you have a financial question you want answered by real fiduciaries, the lines are wide open. Call 8 4 4 5 80 WDBO, that’s 8 4 4 5 80 WDBO and enjoy the show.

(01:46):
Hello and welcome to On the Money right here on WDBO 1 0 7 3 FM AM five 80, always streaming live inside your favorite app, your WDBO app where you can listen to on the money anywhere in the world, assuming it’s Saturday morning and it’s somewhere where you have internet or wifi or you always get your news and traffic in there as well. This is a chance for you to hop on the air hop inside the brain of one of the top 100 financial firms in the country. That of course is the certified financial group office here in central Florida. Over 417 years experience addition out this advice over 30 years on the air, giving out some of the best advice to our DBO listeners and they’re one of the only financial, they are the only financial call in program of its kind. So if you want some great financial advice, this is the place to get it. Thank you so much. Now we’ve got Joe Bur and Harry Stadel Meyer joining us today. Guys, how are we doing?

(02:42):
We’re doing great. Hey Josh. Welcome to Wisconsin.

(02:45):
Wisconsin. It’s freezing outside, you’re telling me.

(02:49):
How about that? What crazy weather are we having?

(02:51):
Huh? Up and down, up and

(02:52):
Down. This next weekend’s supposed to be nicer. Yeah, eighties next week. Well, let’s hope if it doesn’t get much worse than this. Anyway, Harry and I are here as we have been, as you said, Josh, for more than 30 years. Taking our listeners’ questions, questions that you might have regarding your personal finances. Monday through Friday, Harry and I and the 14 other certified financial planner professionals provide retirement planning and investment management for our fee working with our clients as fiduciaries. But on Saturday morning we are here for you absolutely free. So you have any questions regarding your personal finances, decisions that you’re trying to make regarding a mutual fund regarding your IRA or 401k, long-term, healthcare, real estate, life insurance, all that. A more, Harry and I are here to take your calls and the good news for you is that in addition to the WDBO app where you can just speak in there and leave a message, you can pick up the phone and now these magic numbers because there is absolutely nobody in line and you could be the first in the line. So take it away, Josh.

(03:45):
You got it. The numbers the call are eight four five eight zero nine three two six. The numbers you can text in your question are the same numbers, 8 4 4 5 80 WDBO and the app, like Joe mentioned, you can always send in your open mic, just open up that free app, hit the open mic button down at the bottom and send in your best 15 seconds of questions and you’ll get that same sweet, juicy financial advice you can always find here on wbos on the money. Today’s topic of the show, what are the lessons that we learned in 2023 and now what?

(04:15):
Yes, here we are. Usually January is a time of reflection, maybe a time of looking forward and looking at the things we did right and things we did wrong in the previous year and try not to make the same mistakes. Many people make resolutions to do more workouts or eat healthy or save more money. The lesson I think that that I feel I learned or have learned, and I’ve done this with Joe now going on 39 years is literally one year ago we sat in many podcasts, seminars, symposiums with some of the greatest minds on Wall Street and they love to give their prognosis about the coming year. In fact, we’ll be doing that again here in the next couple of

(05:14):
Weeks. And they get paid a lot of

(05:16):
Money. Oh they do. And they love coming to Florida. So we were sitting here last year and the news was gloom and doom. It was not good. And we had just come off a 2022 that was really brutal. It was difficult. And so the prognosis was 2023 is going to be not any better. We’re looking at inflation, we’re looking at the fed’s raising rates 6, 7, 8, 10 times. We’re looking at no wage increases. We’re looking at slow growth. I mean there were so many negatives that it kind of made you want to take your money and put it in the backyard. And

(05:57):
During that time we had a continuation of the Ukraine war and then we had the Israel Gaza thing flare up,

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Right? Yeah, it was not good. No. And so the temptation was to get out of the plan, get out of your investments, get out of your 401k and move it to that nice 5% CD or money market account and kind of abandoned ship. So here we sit in January of 2024 and we look back and we say, wow, what a phenomenal year. What a great year. So just because you hear the gloom and the doom and what’s next, what’s next is that you need to stay the plan regardless of the information that you, and there’s so much information out there, regardless of what you hear, if you have a plan, if you have a plan in place, follow the plan. Continue to follow the plan because if you jump ship because of some nugget that you heard at a cocktail party, it could be financially devastating.

(06:56):
And I know that my moderate portfolios and moderately aggressive portfolios and Joe years were double digits and that was not expected. And what a shame it would’ve been to sit on the sidelines and miss the run. That’s why people don’t achieve the goals that they set themselves financially is because they tend to have knee jerk reactions with their portfolios. And it’s just not, market timing doesn’t work folks. It just doesn’t work. So the lesson learned is if you don’t have a plan, you need to get a plan. And the second is there’s a lot of good information, but take it for what it’s worth. And again, if you’re on a course, stay on the course. Don’t let information derail you.

(07:43):
I think the lesson there is Harry, as we’ve always said, that diversification and quality we’ll win in the long run. And it’s never a smooth straight line. You’ve heard me say this before. If dieting and investing was easy, we’d all be skinny and rich. But it doesn’t work like that. You have to accept there’s going to be periods of time when it’s gut wrenching. But our job is to keep you from blowing yourself up and to understand that if you have diversification, if you have quality, it does win and it does work. And that’s the challenge to be a good, successful, long-term investor. Now by that being said, what you don’t want to do is have everything invested because you need to have cash on the sidelines or cover your expenses for a period of time. What you don’t want to do is be drawing from your portfolio when things are down unnecessarily and you want to have your portfolio built.

(08:26):
So if you need to take some money out, it’s there. And you’re not selling in a down market. And that’s really the secret to planning, as you said, to knowing where you’re going to get the money, how are you going to get the money, what kind of rate of return you need. So that’s what we do as certified financial planners. We’ve been doing this now for nearly 50 years, providing financial planning, investment advice for our clients, not only here in central Florida but now in 36 states. And we’re proud to have our WDBO listeners and if you have any questions, and I saw we had a couple of texts pop in there, Josh,

(08:52):
We sure that this one comes to us from Steve in Orlando. He sent it in during the 7:00 AM show this morning. He says, my dad left me $5,100 IBOs and 50 $50 ebos Ebos date back to the fifties and sixties. I got our iboss in the two thousands. I’m lost as what to do, Steve,

(09:12):
Well unfortunately stop paying interest after 30 or 40 years. So they’ve been just sitting there dormant, needs to go to the treasury.gov and cash ’em in. You can put in the serial numbers and they will give you a value. And then there’s instructions as to how to cash those in. You want to send them register certified mail, registered mail if you can. And that’s what you’re going to end up doing.

(09:38):
Yeah, because at this point they’re,

(09:41):
They’re not earning

(09:41):
Anything. They’re not doing anything. I mean it’s paper that’s takes a little homework. Aren’t there some banks that may help

(09:50):
You with They used to and if any of our listeners know, we’d be eager to hear pass that information on. I know that in times past the banks would do that for you. Oftentimes now you have to be a customer of the bank and jump through some hoops. But if any of our listeners, and we have a great, great, great listeners throughout the WDBO listening area, I’ve had experience with that recently and we’d love to hear it for you. It’s not an area that we deal in regularly and our job is to pass on this information. So Steve, that’s the best we can do this morning. We’ll do a little research during the break and see what else we can find. But we appreciate your text.

(10:22):
Thank you much text. And Steve, if you want to text in, the number is 8 4 4 5 8 0 9 3 2 6 8 4 4 5 80 WDBO. We got Bob that just rolled in too. Do you want to get an answer from Bob? Sure, let’s do Bob. Alright. Bob says, I and my wife are 72 and 71. They are convert, they have a traditional converting, lemme start over. Now they have as a converting traditional IRA to a Roth, everything’s paid for. I do have, or we do have traditional IRAs with Vanguard and 1.2 million regular savings account IRA is 1.3 million. Roth IRA is 690,000. Here’s the question. Am I too late to roll the money into a Roth or should I just go ahead and tuck it away into the savings account?

(11:08):
I lost it. What money is he or she talking about?

(11:10):
Okay, so they have 1.2 million in regular savings. They

(11:14):
Do. This is the call, the text,

(11:15):
This is the call, yes,

(11:16):
Bob, 1.2 million regular savings. Okay.

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And it looks like Roth IRA is 1.3 million.

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This is in addition to 1.2.

(11:24):
I think I’m reading this wrong. Traditional IRA is 1.2. Okay, savings account is 1.3. Roth IRA is 690. That’s what

(11:33):
They own, correct. Okay. Now they inherited on top of that,

(11:36):
I don’t believe, I don’t think they mentioned

(11:37):
That. I think what he’s asking, the way I’m reading it is they have 1.2 million in a traditional

(11:42):
Ira. They want to know should they

(11:43):
And they want to move that into their Roth, is the way I’m reading that. I could be wrong.

(11:47):
Yes. And the answer is maybe, certainly you don’t want to do it in one lump sum because you’re going to end up giving away 40% of that to Uncle Sam and you’ll never recover. What you want to do is look at what your tax situation is. You want to look at. Also depending on your age, because this can impact your Medicare premiums hugely. It could also impact the taxation of your social security. This is a case where you definitely need to sit down with a certified financial planner and have us go through it, look at your current tax situation and look at the timing. We can build a graph to show you the appropriate times based on current tax laws or when to do those conversions and how much to do it. And the nice thing about our current system is that as dynamic, so when tax laws change in the coming years, we just plug in the new tax laws, it happens automatically for you and your plan is automatically updated. So this is what we do and we charge a fee for this. We don’t do this work for free. Like some folks in town want to give away the plan and we know sometimes what those plans are worth. But a certified financial planners, this is what we do. Look at it in detail and can answer those questions. So you ask a great question, right, Harry?

(12:50):
Yeah. Bob has obviously done this with, I believe you said 690,000 in the Roth already. That may have come through a company plan and that they had a Roth option. And I’ve had a lot of listeners say, Hey, I do have that option for a Roth in my 401k. Should I put a hundred percent of that into the Roth? Again, there’s some planning there. I believe that having a little bit in the Roth and contributing a portion of your 401k. Now, it’s not a pre-tax situation, but it does allow you to put some money aside that in theory, assuming they don’t change the laws in theory, you’ll be able to pull out that money without any tax down the road. So it looks like Bob has done that in the past to some degree, but it is a good strategy, but you also have to be careful because it could bite you. Yeah.

(13:46):
What I recommend is that you give us a call, this is what we do, meet you in our office and be glad to quote you our fee, exactly what it takes, but I can guarantee you we’ll save you a multiple of our fee in tax aggravation and tax savings. So give us a call and we’d be glad to help you. 4 0 7 8 6 9 9800 and you can reach Charles Curry right now at our office at 4 0 7 8 6 9 9 8 0 0 and you can discuss your situation in more detail. And I hear the music, Josh, so take it away.

(14:13):
That’s right. That’s one of the beauties of this show is if you’re listening and you’re like, yeah, this is good information, but I want to get down into the nitty-gritty of my personal finances. That’s the benefit of having Charles Kirby standing by off the air. Just give him a call. 8 6 9 9 8 0 0 4 0 7 8 6 9 9 8 0 0 If you want to call in right now. We got Larry and Apopka coming up after this break. The number to talk on the air is 8 4 4 5 8 0 9 3 2 6. Same to Texas 8 4 4 5 80 WDBO. You’re listening to On the Money where we’re planning tomorrow Today with the Certified Financial Group.

(15:05):
Welcome back to On the Money right here on WDBO 1 0 7 3 FM AM five 80, always streaming live inside your WDBO app, Harry Sta Meyer and Joe Bird calling in, calling in. They’re sitting here in the studio or they’re sitting here on the radio show answering your questions as they do from the Certified Financial group. If you want, get your question on the air, the number to call is eight four four five eight zero nine three two six eight four four five eighty WDBO. You can go ahead and text your question in that way too, but if you want to learn some of the juicy knowledge they always have, they have these workshops that are open to the public or open for signup fees and they’re really, really, really great information there.

(15:44):
And Josh, they’re free. We don’t charge anything for these workshops. We have a nice learning center here that’ll seat 30 plus people and we fill those up. In fact, our next workshop, if you go to our website, unfortunately our January 27th is already booked, so we encourage you to keep visiting the website on a regular basis. They do fill up, but our next available workshop is February 7th, six 30 to eight 30. It’s a

(16:11):
Wednesday night.

(16:11):
It’s a Wednesday night. It’s six 30 to eight 30 here in our learning center. Charles Curry and Win Smith, it’s a big topic, takes two of them to wrestle this topic. It’s called Getting Long-Term Care Planning, right? What a hot topic in today’s world with the aging of America and what are the options out there? They’re getting less and less. Many companies are saying goodbye to the long-term care industry. A

(16:39):
Lot of people think that Medicare will take care of you when you have to leave the hospital. And you’ve seen it, Harry, I’ve seen it. When you pull up to the hospital, there’s people that’s sitting there in the wheelchair waiting for the other car to pull up and take them home or take them somewhere because hospitals today are incentivized to get you out the door. And once you’re out the door, then you’re on your own. And if you need skilled nursing after that, where do you go? And you go home and hope that your spouse or your significant other can take care of you and do all that stuff that needs to be done. And if not, what are those options? Medicare will cover that for a period of time. But if you need continuous care, what are the options that you have to you? So Charles and Wynn will be covering that from six 30, I think it’s six 30 to eight February, I think it’s six 30 to eight. Okay, we’ll double check that time. But anyway, we do know it’s February 7th, it’s a Wednesday evening. Go to our website, that’s financial group.com. Financial group.com. You can make your reservation right there.

(17:34):
Yes. And then the next one would be February 24th if you want to go into late February. And that is also hosted by Gary Aley. That is a Saturday morning, 10 to 12. I would encourage you to sign up for that if you’re interested. And the topic there is will your savings last a lifetime? And this is really a planning discussion about how much money do you need to retire? What’s your number? I always tell clients, do you know what your number is when you call it quits? When that income, when that paycheck stops, how much money do you need in your piggy bank to last lifetime? Well, how many people do the yellow pad? Well, I’ve got X amount of dollars and I spend this much. Oh, I’m good. Well, we forget about inflation, we forget about taxes, we forget about a lot of things. And so this is Gary’s going to do a deep dive into will your savings last a lifetime? Excellent seminar workshop. Again, it’s free. It’s here at the Learning Center and we encourage you to go to our website and get signed up for those. Take

(18:37):
It away. Josh,

(18:38):
If you want to hop on the conversation. 8 4 4 5 8 0 9 3 2 6. Larry, Dave, you’re coming up next. You are listening to On the Money where we’re planning tomorrow today with the Certified Financial Group.

(18:50):
Welcome back to On the Money Central. Florida’s most listened to financial call and show brought to you by Certified Financial Group in Altamont Springs. It’s the only show hosted exclusively by certified financial Planner professionals. Monday through Friday, their CFPs provide financial planning and investment advice for a fee. But on Saturdays, the advice is absolutely free and has been for more than 30 years. For their WDBO listeners, if you have a financial question you want answered by real fiduciaries, the lines are wide open. Call five 80 WDBO, that’s 8 4 4 5 80 WDBO and enjoy the rest of the show.

(19:40):
Welcome back to On the Money right here on WDBO 1 0 7 3 FM AM five 80, always streaming live inside your WDBO app. This is your chance to get your questions answered about your financial future because your favorite financial program on the money is here. Answering your questions. Harry Sta Meyer and Joe Bird with the Certified Financial Group answering your questions live on the air. But if you got a question of a more personal matter, more specific finances, we do have Charles Curry standing by in the office. That number is 8 6 9 9 8 0 0. But the number to call in right now to get on the air is 8 4 4 5 8 0 9 3 2 6. Same number to text in five 80 WDBO. Let’s head right to those phones where Larry is calling in from. Apopka. Go ahead Larry, you’re on the air. Hey

(20:28):
Larry.

(20:29):
Hey, good morning. Thank you for everything you’ve done over the years. I’ve gone to your seminars and everything and listened to you guys.

(20:36):
Well, thank you very much. Yeah, thanks for the support, Larry.

(20:40):
My question is, so I want to go with each of the grandchildren. We have three when they turn 13, give them a thousand dollars, get ’em into the stock market, and part of their project will be to research the stock market. What is it? What can it do for you? What are the pros and cons? But it’s how do I structure it so that they, it’s not counted for income when they start going to college and stuff.

(21:08):
How much are you going to give ’em? You said a thousand dollars

(21:12):
Initially a thousand. And then let them figure out to help grow it. Of course, working with them and everything,

(21:18):
You don’t have to worry about college and that’s a small amount. But what your bigger question is, is what are you doing in terms of the specific investment? What have you looked at? What have you considered, what are you thinking?

(21:31):
Well, that’s where I want them to do the research. Only if they want to put the investments. I have five people that I know that have done pretty good with the stock market that I’ll have them go talk to ’em and get ideas and suggestions from ’em and then let them pick four or five stocks or blends or something like that and then help monitor it with them to make changes and things like that.

(21:58):
But

(21:59):
Under,

(22:00):
Well, if they’re under the age of 18, you’re going to need to set up what’s called a TMA account, uniform Transfer to Minors Act account. Are you familiar with that?

(22:09):
No, not at all.

(22:10):
Okay. It’s an account that should be set up for a minor because if you’re under the 18, you can’t own stocks or mutual funds and it’s an account in their name, but they know what’s in it. But you’re the custodian for it and you’ll know what’s in the account and what they’re doing with it. So you’ll probably want to do that and you can keep that in the account until they’re age 25. When they turn age 25, right Harry? Yeah,

(22:37):
Age 25. It has to revert to their name. But up until that point, Larry, you’re in charge. So if all of a sudden this child turns out not to be the sweet child grandchild that you thought, you can still pull the plug, but after 25 it’s theirs. And for

(22:55):
College purposes it won’t count because you’re still in charge. You can pull the plug anytime you want. So it’s not really their money.

(23:02):
Go ahead. So in respects, I am the custodian and then they’re the beneficiary when they turn

(23:09):
25. That’s correct. That’s correct.

(23:11):
It’s called an UON account. Uniforms transferred to minor. If you go to Vanguard or any of the Dels or, and you just Google UTMA or plug in, it’ll give you a nice definition. But that’s the right way to set this up For the grandkids, I would be careful about getting into individual stocks. Everybody wants to tout stocks. We’re big believers in mutual funds that you can own a hundred stocks versus one individual because out there is the big seven as they call it. And sometimes some people think those might be, but it’s certainly a great project for the grandkids to kick off their investment career, if you will. But we’re bigger believers in mutual funds than buying an individual issue. But it’s a little easier

(24:02):
If you’re trying to educate the children about what the stock market is all about and valuations and all the stuff that needs to be done when you’re picking individual investments. That’s a great way to do it. It used to be in times past that people would buy a share of Disney and just hold. And the beauty of it was that you actually own the certificate, and those certificates today are worth more than the share value is simply because of the collective value. But you can’t do that anymore. But you’re right. It’s a great way to teach the kids of American capitalist system.

(24:33):
Yes. By the way, those certificates are gorgeous, right? They’re

(24:36):
Right. Yeah. There you

(24:37):
Go. I’ve seen you have gold and blue and Yeah, nice. Go ahead.

(24:42):
And my plan is to kind of really guide ’em to the small caps of big caps and stuff like that. One of the people they’re going to talk to is his uncle and his uncle kind of plays the market and he goes into specific stocks, holds ’em, then sells ’em, and kind of see the advantages and disadvantages of that. And actually his uncle has done quite well at it, but my thing is just like my 401k is set up to go into the blends and the mixes and does life care 2020 fives and stuff like that. Right,

(25:21):
Right. But I think that’s great, Larry, once again, talk to whomever you’re going to do business with about setting up the UTMA account for them. And you can plug in the account, you can see it on the computer and they can fool around with it, but there shouldn’t, but you’re really the custodian,

(25:37):
Right? Yeah. Yeah. And what are the initials again on that top

(25:41):
UTMA Uniform Transfer to Minors Act in Florida? It’s called, you can Google it. UTMA Florida tell you everything you want to know.

(25:49):
Okay, thank you very much guys. You’re

(25:51):
Welcome, Larry. Have a great weekend. Thanks for the call.

(25:53):
Hey, bye-Bye bye.

(25:55):
Thank you. Larry, if you want to hop on the air, 5 8 0 9 3 2 6 8 4 4 5 80 WDBO. Let’s stick to the phones where Dave is calling in about a Roth IRA inheritance. Go ahead Dave. You’re on air Morning,

(26:08):
Dave.

(26:09):
Good morning. It’s not a Roth, it’s just a regular IRA. My mother passed in October and myself and my siblings inherited the IRA. And my question is, I got two different things in my research on the RM on whether I could both say I have to withdraw it within 10 years. One says I can take out any portion at any time as long as I get it all out in 10 years. And the other thing says if my mother had started RMD on it, then I have to continue RMD.

(26:47):
That’s correct.

(26:48):
How old was mom when she passed? Mom

(26:50):
Was 93.

(26:51):
Yeah, so I’d say she was taking RMDs or at least I hope she was.

(26:57):
My sister says she took RMD last year. I know of. She did take out whatever. So I do have to take out something each year.

(27:08):
Yeah, that’s correct. Okay. And you got to have it drained within 10 years.

(27:13):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I knew the drained within 10 years, but I thought I could take it out at any time over that 10 years.

(27:20):
But started rule when that law was first passed, the IRS didn’t know what they were doing. No, they didn’t. They went back and forth on it. But the current rule is, is that because she was already taking RMDs, right, Harry?

(27:32):
Yeah, that’s correct. And however, if you stick to just the RMD distributions and you do the math, obviously the numbers don’t make sense for it to be drained in 10 years. So you’re going to have to accelerate that

(27:45):
In the 10th year.

(27:46):
In the 10th year. So if you’re left with this IRA and there’s 40,000 in the account, you you’re going to need to pull that out and pay taxes. That was the idea, which I still can’t believe. It blows my

(28:01):
Mind. I presume, Dave, that the IRAs are already being transferred to your name and your siblings names as beneficiary IRAs. Yeah.

(28:08):
Yeah. Some of my siblings just took the money out or taken it out over the next couple of years. My brother and I, we took a small portion in December, but we had planned on taking it maybe four or five years down the road taking out with when we retire, then our income would be lower and that would be a good thing to take it out.

(28:35):
That makes sense.

(28:36):
But since I have to take out, how do I find out what the RMD on that is

(28:42):
Your custodian? Do I

(28:43):
Start a new 10 year thing or

(28:45):
Yes. No, you said start a new 10 year thing.

(28:51):
Yeah. Do I start a new 10 year r and d or am I using whenever, when mom started the RMD? Am I just continuing on with the amounts that she took out?

(29:05):
Yes. Yeah, the amount that she was taking out is what you should continue. I believe the 10 years reverts back to the year she died. So she passed in October of 2023, correct? Correct. Okay, so that’s kind of your 10 year window, but your RMD will be established by the value of the account on December 31st and there’s a calculation, but as Joe said, your custodian should give you that number or it’s easy to find typically on the website or are you dealing with the Fidelitys of the Schwabs of the world or

(29:41):
American century.

(29:42):
Okay. Okay. So they should have that information for you.

(29:46):
Okay. I looked on their site and my information, their site indicated 10 years, anytime they said something about the secure act, January 1st, 2020,

(29:58):
That’s if she hadn’t been taking RMDs. Right.

(30:02):
Ah, okay. But since she

(30:03):
Was key,

(30:04):
That’s the key there. That’s the key.

(30:06):
Okay. But I still have 10 years even though she had started taking,

(30:12):
But you have to continue the RMDs, but you have to be drained within 10 years.

(30:15):
Right. Okay. So I got 10 years. I just have to do a different, I don’t have four years left if she’d taken it for six years. That’s

(30:24):
Correct. Oh, that’s correct. Yeah. Yeah. No.

(30:27):
Okay, great. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. You’re welcome,

(30:30):
Jake, luck. Thank you for the call. Have a great weekend all And we have another text question that floated in, right? Terry? You got that? Josh,

(30:38):
I got it right here. If you want to get your question, text it. Go ahead and text 8 4 4 5 8 0 9 3 2 6. We’ll do a quickie right here. My husband and I have vowed to get our quote ducks in order for 2024. What advice can you give us and where do we begin?

(30:53):
Here’s the proverbial we want to get our ducks in a row for 2024. I think where we start, one of the most important aspects of looking forward and doing the right things in 2024 financially is start with your debt, making sure that you understand your debt, making sure you understand what those credit cards may be charging you. Sometimes that’s a shock when you start looking at 21, 22, 20 3%. Get a handle on your debt that’s most important. Then next, take a look at your expenses. Time and time again, I have folks come in and I ask ’em a question. I said, so tell me a little about your income. And they rattle off, well, I make X amount and my wife makes X amount. We have this coming in and this coming in. And the next question is, tell me about your expenses. How much are you spending a month? And it’s a blank stare. It’s unknown. Well, we think get a handle on your expenses. How much are you spending each and every month? There should be a number that you could put on paper to know that if there’s a hole in the boat, you need to plug that hole. Something that we have here that I’m willing to send to any listener that’s interested is our infamous blue form, right Joe, we’ve had that for years and years and it,

(32:12):
It’s an eyeopener.

(32:12):
It is a very big eyeopener. If you want to just email me@harrietfinancialgroup.com, I’d be happy to send you a PDF form and it has all the expenses that you might be spending in a month, but getting a handle on your expenses. Then also look at your 401k. Are you maxing your contributions? Are you doing everything you can to save money? And then also making sure that your wheels in place updated. Those are just kind of four or five things that you really, really need to look at as far as getting your ducks in order in 2024. And the best advice to me is if you’re going down this path, find a professional, get yourself a plan if you don’t have a plan, because if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

(32:53):
Well said.

(32:54):
Thank you so much, Harry Joe bur one more segment coming up after this year break, Yvonne, the money if you want to call in five eight zero nine three two six and we got Charles Curry standing by off the air for any specific questions you may have about your personal finances. That number is 4 0 7 8 6 9 9 8 0 0. You are listening to On the Money We’re planning tomorrow Today with the Certified Financial Group. Welcome back to On the Money right here on WDBO 1 0 7 3 FMAM five 80, always streaming live inside your WDBO app offering some free financial advice every single Saturday morning, 8 4 4 5 8 0 9 3 2 6 is the number to save. But as this episode comes to a close, I want to give out a different number So you can call Charles Curry if you have any questions for the brief couple minutes after the show. 4 0 7 8 6 9 9 8 0 0 4 0 7 8 6 9 9800. And Joe wanted to clarify a little bit on an answer you provided to Steve earlier

(34:03):
In the show. Well, I want to give him more information that Steve, Steve called earlier and he inherited some savings bonds and I bonds years ago that were purchased years ago. And unfortunately after a period of time they stopped paying interest. And so you’re not making any money on ’em. They just are what they are. Where do you go? Well, you can try your local bank. Some banks will do it for you, particularly if you’re a customer. But they’re doing that less and less. The better thing to do, maybe go to treasury direct.gov, treasury direct.gov, all the information is there, tell you what forms to fill out and how to get your money from the Treasury Department. So that’s for Steve. Steve, I’m sorry, I didn’t know that right off the top of my head. We did talk about going to the bank, but we weren’t sure and we did measure in the treasury. So that’s an option. Have you

(34:45):
Been in the bank lately?

(34:47):
Nobody goes to the banks anymore. They don’t. That’s why you’re seeing fewer and fewer of ’em. Yep. If I’ve got a deposit, I take a picture of the check and you do the same thing. So my world is changing. We’ve got, once again, Charles Curry taking calls off the air and I want to talk about score my funds. Harry.

(35:04):
Yes. What an opportunity for you. If you’re looking at your portfolio, your mutual funds, your investments, and you’re wondering if they’re the best that they could be. We actually have an opportunity for you to log into score my funds.com, I believe it is. Yeah, score my funds.com. And you just put in the ticker symbol and we will rate and score them based on our little scoring system to let you know if they are top performers, if they are something that we would recommend and it’s a way for you to really get a portfolio evaluation for free. We’re not going to charge you anything, but we will give you our honest opinion based again on our criteria. And that is again, another free service that I think if you have a portfolio, certainly should take care of. And we’ve had some good portfolios come in and then we’ve also had some that were maybe questionable, maybe not the best place to be.

(36:04):
So it’s absolutely free. Go to score my funds.com score my funds.com. So all you have to do is put in the ticker. If you don’t know the ticker, there’s a pull down menu that you can find the ticker, plug it in there, and we will get you an answer within 48 hours. And we will, as Harry said, score that fund for you based on a scoring criteria developed by the Center for Fiduciary Studies. It’s totally unbiased and it’ll tell you the quality of your fund measured on 11 distinct criteria. Everything from expenses to risk, to how much reward you’re getting for the risk that you’re taking with that investment and so forth. And if you want to take it one step further, we can then tell you based on what you’re holding, how much risk you’re actually taking based on your own criteria. So if you’re interested in doing that, we can follow up with you as well. It is absolutely free. We’ve been doing this for our clients now for several years, and if that Alliant Clients says Really thank us because they never really knew what they had until they saw the score. So I hear the music there, Josh, so you can take it away buddy.

(36:58):
Thank you so much. You’ve just listened to a great episode of the Certified Financial Groups on the Money or we’re planning tomorrow

(37:05):
Today

(37:05):
With the one and only Certified Financial Group.

 

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