Speaker 1 (00:00):
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.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Stay tuned for on the Money Central Florida’s most listened to financial call and show Bronte 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 show.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Welcome to On the Money here on WDBO 1 0 7 3 FM and AM five 80 always streaming. Live in that w dbo at my name’s Laura Lee and I’m joined today as we are every show by the fantastic members of the certified financial group. Today we have the Oracle Orlando, Joe Burton, we have Win Smith and they’re taking your financial questions at 5 8 0 9 3 2 6 8 4 4 5 8 0 9 3 2 6. Write that number down, memorize it because you can call in with your financial questions of that number. You can text your questions to that number 8 4 4 5 8 0 9 3 2 6. Or you could always launch that WDBO app from your phone. Tap the open mic button inside there and leave an open mic question about your financial questions, whether that’s investment planning, retirement planning, maybe you saw something on Facebook or on the news and it made you think, could that possibly be true? Get those questions in right now. 8 4 4 5 8 0 9 3 2 6. How are we guys doing today? We’re
Speaker 4 (02:36):
Doing great, Laurel. Good morning to you and good morning Orlando. As you said in the intro there, win Smith and I are here to take your calls, things that might be on your mind regarding your personal finances, decisions that you’re trying to make regarding your 401k, your IRA, maybe some life insurance that you’re considering. Somebody talked to you about an annuity. Gee, what’s that all about? Mutual funds, stocks, bonds, real estate, long-term, healthcare, all those things that we look at, we hear about people try to sell us, whatever it might be. Win an I and 14 other certified financial planners on Monday through Friday. Do retirement planning and investment management for a fee. We work with our clients as fiduciaries. In fact, we are the folks that are known as fixing those free financial plans that are out there. The folks come into us and can you help me fix this thing because it ain’t working just the way I thought it would be, but it was for free so I thought I’d take advantage of it. We are those folks here on Altamont Springs as we have been now for almost 50 years. Our roots go back that far and we are here to take your calls this morning, things that might be on your mind and our topic for this morning is what it is. When can
Speaker 5 (03:33):
You be a millionaire if you are in debt?
Speaker 4 (03:37):
There we go. We’ll get right to that. But I see we’ve got some calls lined up already, Laurel, so let’s not keep our listeners or our callers waiting.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Absolutely. They called in at 8 4 4 5 8 0 9 3 2 6 oh. Another one’s calling in right now. Alright, let’s get to Bob. Bob, go ahead and ask the gentleman your question.
Speaker 4 (03:52):
Good morning, Bob. What’s up?
Speaker 6 (03:54):
Good morning. Hey, thanks. Yeah, I have a mutual fund that I’ve owned for probably 10 or 15 years. It’s nothing fancy. Basically a global asset allocation fund and I’ve got a mailing that it was going to liquidate, which I assume that means they just sell all their holdings and give me what’s left of my share.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
That’s right.
Speaker 6 (04:14):
And I just wonder, I’ve never had, this is in a Roth IRA, but I’ve never had a mutual fund liquidate. I wonder why that would happen.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
Well, what happens is that they can’t run that fund anymore efficiently. They don’t have enough assets to pay the management fees and therefore they don’t have enough assets to manage to pay their fees and to keep the thing running. So they’re going to, you got it a hundred percent right. They’re going to liquidate the holdings and pay you out accordingly. And the good news for you is that it’s in a Roth IRA, so there won’t be any tax consequences, but that’s what’s going to happen.
Speaker 6 (04:46):
I think I’ve actually, I’m going to lose money on the deal anyway.
Speaker 4 (04:50):
Oh, that’s too bad. Well, over the years, haven’t you? I can’t say I’m sure, but has the fund not paid capital gains or dividends or something? Do you remember what
Speaker 6 (04:57):
You It has done mediocre, but it’s just a kind of a balanced asset allocation, so I wasn’t expecting anything great, but it wasn’t terrible.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
Yeah, that does happen. You can tell us the name of the fund. There’s no harm in telling us. You want to tell us what the fund is?
Speaker 6 (05:13):
Yeah, well the ticker is M-B-E-A-X. It’s a MG asset allocation fund. And I just noticed the last time I looked at a chart, it dropped by about 50% just before. I think they liquidated on February the 10th or something like that. Okay.
Speaker 4 (05:32):
Well do you remember what you paid for it?
Speaker 6 (05:34):
Well, I think I had a total of maybe 20,000 in it. I haven’t put any extra, well, because it’s in an IRAI don’t have earned income. Yeah, I’ve been doing Roth conversions, but I haven’t been adding new money.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
Got it, got it.
Speaker 6 (05:51):
Also about gold. Could I ask a question? Course. Yeah. I hear a lot about, I do own it in an ETF and I haven’t bought any since it was in the five hundreds or lower, but I hear how well it protects you from government shenanigans, but as I understand it, in the early thirties, the government required citizens to turn in their gold. Is that
Speaker 4 (06:13):
True? That’s correct, yeah. You can no longer hold gold and that’s when the dollar was pegged. Pegged to gold.
Speaker 6 (06:21):
So it doesn’t sound to me like it does so great a job at protecting me from
Speaker 4 (06:26):
Well back then, I mean people still hold gold. That was the gold coins you couldn’t have anymore. But then they did come out with gold coins. We got gold coins. Yeah. So yeah, that times change even while you bought at $500 and it’s up over 2000 or has last time I looked.
Speaker 6 (06:47):
Yeah, I just consider it a diversification. I do not consider it an inflation hedge. I have Ivans for that.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
There you go. There you go. Well you sound like you’re doing okay, Bob. I appreciate your call. Anything else we can answer for you this morning?
Speaker 6 (06:59):
Well that’s good for now. Thanks guys.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
Okay, you’re quite welcome. Thanks for the call. Alright, Laurel, it’s back to you.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
Alright, thank you for that. Call Bob at (844) 580-9326. Let’s move on to Mike who has a question for the guys? Go ahead, Mike.
Speaker 4 (07:15):
Morning Mike.
Speaker 7 (07:17):
Good morning. Hi. Thanks for taking my call.
Speaker 4 (07:20):
Of course. What’s up?
Speaker 7 (07:22):
I got some income that’s just been sitting in a money market from the proceeds of a duplex that I sold a couple of years ago and what’s left is it’s around two 50 and I decided to purchase a property down in Dominican Republic. It’s a brand new property oceanfront. I’m going to Airbnb. Well, it’s not complete yet, so it’s still in the works, but as I’m going through this process, I’m being told that if you make any investment income on property out of the United States, the government is standing there waiting with their handout for you to declare on your income tax.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
That’s correct. It’s not tax free.
Speaker 7 (08:14):
I mean the reason I heard is because you’re an American citizen, but I just don’t, I don’t know. I don’t see how they can stretch their reach that far to other countries.
Speaker 4 (08:32):
Well it does happen, right?
Speaker 5 (08:34):
Yeah, Mike, there’s things that are called tax treaties that the US has with other countries and that’s how they do that legally.
Speaker 4 (08:44):
Yeah, if you look at a 10 40, there’s a place to recognize foreign income and that is definitely foreign income. But
Speaker 7 (08:52):
You know what, go
Speaker 4 (08:53):
Ahead.
Speaker 7 (08:55):
You know what the funny thing is is when I sold my duplex, I had to write them a check for $41,000 as capital gains. Okay, alright. I did that. Well now I’m using the money to buy another investment property. So when and if I want to sell that investment property down in dr, then I have to pay them tax on that money that I use to buy that property.
Speaker 4 (09:27):
No, you’ll have to pay taxes on the gains on the property, not on the entire amount out
Speaker 7 (09:33):
Around the gains. Yeah, it’s still a dollar.
Speaker 4 (09:40):
Yeah, well right, I understand. But the money that you invested is your basis and then whatever gain you have over and above that, that’s what will be taxable to you. So there’s no way around it. That’s just the way the laws are written. Frankly, your idea of investing in real estate overseas or anywhere outside the country and collecting rental income, we’d all be doing that. I mean we’d have people lined up at the real estate offices would be bursting, but no, you have to recognize that as income. So good luck with that. Good luck with that property.
Speaker 7 (10:12):
Thank you. I appreciate you taking my call.
Speaker 4 (10:15):
You’re welcome and good luck to you. Thanks for your call. And we’ve got another call lined up there. I see Laurel, we
Speaker 3 (10:19):
Sure do. Bob, go ahead and explain to the gentleman what you were explaining to me earlier. Go ahead.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
Good morning. Is it Bob or Bill? Bill? I’m sorry. I said Bob
Speaker 3 (10:28):
Bill. I meant Bill. Go ahead, bill.
Speaker 8 (10:32):
Yeah, good morning Mr. Bur. I got two quick questions. One is if I wrote a lot of charity things before December 31st and a nice government agency that I wrote a big charity check to or failed to cash it until February, but it was dated and it was turned into them postmarked, all that stuff, the check, but it wasn’t cashed until that will the IRS recognize it as 23 or 24 charitable deduction.
Speaker 4 (11:05):
It’ll be 23. I’m sure you’ve wrote on the check December 31st or December 28th. Yeah, you’ll be okay. Yeah. In other
Speaker 8 (11:13):
Words, number two,
Speaker 4 (11:14):
Wait, wait, lemme be sure I understand. Let be sure I understand. You wrote a check to a charity that was not okay. Yeah, you the interesting about that, you could even put on a credit card right Win. You can use your credit card to pay something on a charity and even though you don’t pay the bill until January, you can get the deduction for that previous year. So you’ll get the deduction. Okay?
Speaker 8 (11:35):
Yep. Thank you. And then quickly, I know other people are waiting. So the other question is there are people who know the inside of the market and they make huge amounts of money. For example, George Soros, in 30 years, his fund that’s now discontinued, made an average for each year of 30%. That’s what the internet indicates. He may, that’s why it’s worth what he is. My question is, given the fact that our money is failing dramatically, you understand what PRIC means. You understand that Bitcoins and selling at 49,000 real people paying that kind of money, right? My question to you is, given the inflation is going to continue on and it’s not going to be stopped by power or anybody else for a long time, I want to ask you and that you are the experts in money and investment would, should we not try to find whether you provide it or somebody else provides it, who’s deep in the market, people who have a record of finding investments like venture capital or whatever you want to call it, and getting into ’em early and finding out what they know so that we can get ’em before they start skyrocketing up as another way of fighting inflation.
(12:58):
Aren’t there organizations, are there media ways that you can find out who has been most successful in this kind of operation so we can protect ourselves against, we’ve lost 18% of every dollars in the last three years. I like your opinion on that.
Speaker 4 (13:19):
So what you’re saying is you want to know how to find what we would call the unicorn, the next apple, the next Microsoft, the next meta, the next Nvidia, whatever it might be. I think that’s what you’re asking. How do you find those? Is that correct?
Speaker 8 (13:33):
It’s over $700 a share. The high two IP to E to either make it worth for me, I’m an older person, but I would like to get something that I could get a very good return the next three to five years.
Speaker 4 (13:47):
Yeah, you and the rest of America, you and the rest of the world. Frankly, what you’re talking about is frankly venture capital and there are a lot of venture capitalists out there. The good news is, is that they occasionally hit home runs and they make the news and they turn out to be big companies. But for every home run there is, there’s a number of them that strike out. And what you’re talking about is a high risk, high reward proposition. It’s not what we do for our clients. Our job is to build diversified portfolios that will stand the test of time. We’re not trying to hit home runs singles and doubles. We’ll get you there and that’s what we do. And if you want to hang on until after the break, I hear the music, we talk a little bit more about that right? Win. Yes. Okay, hang on.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
Alright, thank you so much for that Bill. 8 4 4 5 8 0 9 3 2 6. That’s the number to call in right now with your financial question or text in 8 4 4 5 8 0 9 3 2 6. You’re listening to the On the Money Show where we’re planning tomorrow today, certified Financial Group. Welcome back to On the Money here on WDBO, the number to call in, get your financial questions answered. It’s 4 5 8 0 9 3 2 6. You can also text that question or text that number with your questions 8 4 4 5 8 0 9 3 2 6. We have a couple callers on the line that we want to get to Michael’s hanging on, but we wanted to finish up our talk with Bill first. Right, guys?
Speaker 4 (15:19):
Yeah, let’s go back to Bill. Bill. I’m glad you hung on here. Let’s recap what your question was for the listeners. It just might’ve tuned in. So as I recall, you were asking how do you find the next big thing that you could get in on the ground floor? Does that pretty much summarize what your question was,
Speaker 8 (15:36):
Mr. Bird? Exactly. And the reason I did, it’s very simple is people have done it, the insiders have it, we don’t have it. And what it bothers me is that what bothers me is, for example, I watched, I won’t mention the name of the company, but it was on a TV thing and the guy says, and of course I guess they can lie, says that 86% of the time he’s had winners and he mentioned how many he’s had over the years and so on. So in other words, they don’t mind lying and so on to get my money. Is that basically the idea because, and I see you laughing, so obviously, I mean there’s no credible way of trying to, I mean even if you paid more money to do it, they’re just going to take it. I mean there’s no winner here as far as we’re
Speaker 4 (16:33):
Concerned. Well, there can be, I mean, I don’t want to poo the entire idea. It’s like life. You got to be in the right place at the right time, know the right people have money to be able to invest, but it’s a high risk, high reward proposition for every McDonald’s. There’s 101 that hamburger stands and never made it. I mean, and look at the computer companies that have come and gone like Wang and cell phone companies, cell phone companies. So that’s a high risk, high reward proposition. However, win and I were talking over the break and there are some options for, I would say the smaller investor to perhaps get into some of these venture funds, but it is a high risk, high reward proposition. You want to talk about this?
Speaker 5 (17:07):
Yeah, I mean they’re coming out now actually with venture capital funds where their mutual funds or ETFs that are actually going out and looking for venture capital types of investments. Now those are, as Joe mentioned, that they’re high risk, high returns. Some you wouldn’t want to bet the farm on something like that. But it is appropriate, especially if you’ve got a time horizon where you have time for this to kind of pan out. If that’s on your side, that it’d definitely be appropriate to have part of your portfolio in something a little more aggressive. The other thing would be just an aggressive growth small cap fund or ETF. I mean, again, they’re out there buying smaller companies that are in their infancy stage. They haven’t reached that peak growth yet. And again, you’ve got diversification by going in through a fund or going in through an ETF. So you mitigate some of your risk there. But yet also you’re knowing that if you’re going to throw enough darts against the wall, you’re, you’re going to hit the target every now and then.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
So if you have an actively managed fund, they are doing the due diligence, they’re looking at the opportunities that are out there and they’re making the decisions. They’re not all going to hit home runs. But occasionally you’ll find that diamond in the rough and you can make a lot of money. But as wind said, it’s a high risk, high reward. And here the music Laurel also take it away.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
8 4 4 5 8 0 9 3 2 6. That’s the number to call in right now and talk to the financial experts from Certified Financial Group. If you don’t want to go on air, you want to talk to about something a little more privately, Rodney Owenby is taking calls off air at (407) 869-9800. But to call us right now, talk on the air 8 4 4 5 8 0 9 3 2 6. You’re listening to On The Money Show where we’re planning tomorrow.
Speaker 4 (18:52):
Today
Speaker 3 (18:53):
With the Certified Financial Group,
Speaker 9 (18:56):
Put your hands
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Welcome back to On the Money Central. Florida’s most listened to financial call and show Bronte 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 rest of the show.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
Welcome back. Thank you so much for listening to On The Money Show here on WDBO. We’re here answering your financial questions from investment planning to retirement planning. And all you have to do is dial the number 8 4 4 5 8 0 9 3 2 6. If you don’t want to call in, you could always text in your question at the same number 8 4 4 5 8 0 9 3 2 6. Or you can launch that WDBO app from your phone. Tap the open mic button there and you can leave it open mic with your financial question. My name’s Laura Lee, I’m joined today by Joe Burt and Win Smith from the Certified Financial group. And guys, we have got a bunch of wonderful calls in so far and Michael’s been waiting for a minute here. Should we go ahead and talk to Michael?
Speaker 4 (20:31):
Let’s talk to Michael. Good morning Michael. Thanks for calling.
Speaker 10 (20:34):
Good morning. I have a quick question. My wife and I, we have about $150,000 in savings. That’s all we got. I’m 62. She’s 60. And I’m looking at Phoenix Capital Group. I know nothing about investing and I heard they pay better interest than what we’re getting right now. Right now the bank we’re at is paying us like 0.5%. You know what I mean? So I’m looking for something to get a little better interest and I think they call it passive income where you get a check every month and we’re trying to look for something like that.
Speaker 4 (21:20):
I understand. Doing some research on that. Wind tells me you need to be an accredited investor to qualify for that.
Speaker 10 (21:27):
Okay, very good. I’m looking for something that’s going to pay me better than 0.5%. Do you got any advice?
Speaker 4 (21:34):
Well, money market accounts today are four and a half or 5%. I mean, if you’ve got the money sitting in just a checking account or savings account. Yeah, I mean, or even treasury bills are at 4%, 4% plus guaranteed by the government.
Speaker 5 (21:45):
CDs.
Speaker 4 (21:46):
CDs. I mean that’s what you need. I think what you need first and foremost. Michael, are you still working?
Speaker 10 (21:55):
No, I’ve been disabled. I was involved in really bad automobile accident at the age of 21.
Speaker 4 (22:01):
Oh my gosh. So I
Speaker 10 (22:02):
Really haven’t had any opportunity to IRA and all that stuff. We haven’t had the opportunity to do that stuff. So
Speaker 4 (22:11):
You probably have limited social security as well.
Speaker 10 (22:14):
Yeah, yeah. I get like $1,500 a month and that’s it.
Speaker 4 (22:18):
Okay, got it. Got it.
Speaker 10 (22:19):
But we live very simple and we don’t have many bills.
Speaker 4 (22:22):
Well that’s good.
Speaker 10 (22:23):
That’s good. It works. It works. And my wife’s income
Speaker 4 (22:26):
Works well. I would forget that investment you’re talking about because in order to be, you’ve got to have a net worth of a million bucks to get in it.
Speaker 10 (22:36):
Okay, cool.
Speaker 4 (22:38):
And those kinds of things, the reason that they’re accredited investors, the government sets that up that way because they realize or feel that if you’ve got that kind of net worth, you can afford to lose your money. And that’s just the way the government thinks and it’s not suitable for you what you really need. Michael Morris, first and foremost, you want to know that you’re going to be okay at the end of the day. I presume that’s what all the people that come to see us, I shouldn’t say Alban, the vast majority, right? Yeah.
Speaker 5 (23:04):
Most
Speaker 4 (23:05):
That come to see us, they want to know at the end of the day, when I put my head on the pillow at night, am I going to be okay? And am I going to run my money going to last longer than I will? And the only way to know that with a high degree of certainty is to do some planning. And most people don’t do that. They don’t take the time to do it. Now you’re taking the first step, at least calling and trying to get some information. But what planning is, let’s discuss what’s involved here, what that would give Michael.
Speaker 5 (23:31):
Well Michael, first of all would be looking at your income needs, looking at what sources of income you have, how secure those sources of income are, any large purchases that might be coming up, just looking at what life over the next few years and then looking at what you have to work with. So this 125,000 and whatever else you have your house, I mean whatever your assets are and how to best position those to meet those needs over the coming years.
Speaker 4 (24:00):
Right now you’re kind flying blind and you’re kind of grabbing at straws and trying to figure it out on a day-to-day basis. And what you need to know is you need to have a plan and we charge a fee for that. I know there’s some folks out there that’ll do it for free. As I said in my opening remarks, we fix the free plans, but if you want to work with us, we’d be glad to do it. We give you off your complimentary consultation, we’ll tell you what our fee is to do the work for you, but at the end of the day, we will be able to tell you where you are and what you need to do. Now if you don’t look back five years from now and say, geez, I wish I’d have known that, or gee, I’m sorry I did that.
(24:31):
And that’s what planning is all about. Work with a certified financial planner first and foremost, somebody that will work for you as a fiduciary. All certified financial planners and everybody is out there. They call themselves wealth managers, financial planners, but only certified financial planners are required to work with you as a fiduciary, which means we’re working on your behalf just like an attorney would work for you, work on your interest and certified financial planner. Then there’s a lot of great ones in town, not just our firm, but sit down with a planner, have him or her look at what your situation is and then show you what you need to do. Now, like I said, you don’t look back five years from now and say, geez, I wish I’d have known that, or gee, I’m sorry I did that. And if nothing else, it’ll give you peace of mind or it’ll tell you what you need to do, what things you can do. So like I said, you don’t run out of money
Speaker 5 (25:14):
And Michael, it sounds like you could do a better job than the half a percent or whatever, but it also sounds like that you also can’t afford to take a whole lot of risk either. So you need to find that sweet spot. That’s very true. The sweet spot between the two. And that’s really what we try to do with our clients is we try to maximize their assets, their situation to get the best deal for them, the best situation for them, the best plan for them based upon what they’re trying to accomplish.
Speaker 4 (25:41):
At the end of the day, you want to have your money invested as conservatively as possible and still have a high probability of not running out of money. Unfortunately, most people take it to extreme. Either they’re very conservative like you are, you’ve got all your money sitting in the bank, you’re earning nothing. Or they take the other extreme and they invest their money in this Phoenix fund and it could blow up and you lose everything you have. So you got to fund one. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And that’s what certified financial planners do for clients. They show you where you are and what you need to do. So Michael, whether it’s us or another certified financial planner in town, as I said, there’s a lot of great ones out there. Please do that for yourself and for your wife to at least give you some peace of mind.
Speaker 10 (26:18):
Okay guys, listen, I love listening to you. I listen to you every week. Thank
Speaker 4 (26:21):
You very much. I appreciate that, Michael, wish you well. Thank you for calling. Bye-Bye. Alright, our topic of the day, which we never got to when is
Speaker 5 (26:27):
No, can you be a millionaire if you’re in debt?
Speaker 4 (26:29):
Yeah. Can you?
Speaker 5 (26:30):
Well, I know Joe preparing for the show. We’re looking for things that might be of interest to our listeners and this was something that ran across my screen in my browser the other day and I thought that’s an interesting, interesting question to ask because it’s really not related. I mean, you can be a millionaire and own a dollar, have a million dollar home free and clear, and that can be your only asset. You can be a millionaire or you could have a billion dollars worth of companies and real estates and investments and have debt of 999 million and still be millionaire, millionaire. So they’re really not related. So I don’t know if this comes about just from a misconception from one of the famous financial entertainers. Let’s refer to him as who has built a career on being debt-free, but debt, we talk a lot of times about, and we’re product agnostic, but there’s also an agnostic approach to certain strategies and certain things. And debt is one of those. Debt is not necessarily good or bad, it just depends upon how you use it,
Speaker 4 (27:29):
Right? And if you use it to an extreme, do you in,
Speaker 5 (27:32):
Well, if it’s good debt, I mean we talk about, a lot of times we’ll talk with our clients about good debt versus bad debt and debt is nothing more than leverage. So it’s either working for you or it’s working against you. So if you’ve got a credit card out there, you’re paying 28% on and you don’t have anything to show for that $5,000 credit card balance that’s working against you in a bad way.
Speaker 4 (27:52):
100%. If you look at the history of building wealth in this country, many middle class people have built their wealth on the home that they bought when they were young and they made that mortgage payment even though it was miserable to make it. And the reason being is because you’ll make that mortgage payment no matter what. That’s right. I mean unless you’re just flat out broken, you can’t make it. You’ll eat, you’ll eat peanut butter and live frugally, but you will make that mortgage payment. You don’t want to lose that house. And over time that equity builds up and assuming that you’re in a decent neighborhood and you maintain the house, you’re going to build equity. So debt does work. I mean I have debt and I use it wisely, particularly it’s some great stuff when the interest rates were so low and thank gosh we did that. But debt works. But if you’re putting on a credit card and paying those double digit interest rates, that is the way to ruin.
Speaker 5 (28:46):
Yeah, and talking about smart money, I mean smart money uses debt wisely. That’s the key between smart money and dumb money.
Speaker 4 (28:52):
Yes, exactly. So
Speaker 5 (28:54):
If you’re not out there financing a lifestyle, going into debt to finance a lifestyle, then you have a very good chance of using debt wisely.
Speaker 4 (29:02):
100%. So I saw we had some text questions come in during the week that were sent to you. You have those Laurel?
Speaker 3 (29:08):
I do have them, yeah.
Speaker 4 (29:10):
Okay. Far away. So
Speaker 3 (29:11):
Let’s start with this one, Claude, like Mary asking why don’t CFPs give tax advice?
Speaker 4 (29:18):
Well, we do when we do financial planning. I mean it’s part of overall planning.
Speaker 5 (29:25):
Well, we do tax planning, but CFPs are not, or not CPAs, tax attorneys, enrolled agents. Those are the three types of tax professionals that can represent a client in front of the IRS. So we don’t actually take the plan and take it to your tax return. And when we do planning, we always say you want to run all this by your tax professional because they are the ones who are going to help you with that tax return and they’re going to be the ones who can represent you in front of the IRS if there is an issue with that tax
Speaker 4 (29:58):
Return. But the neat thing about the software that we’re able to use today, we can show you exactly what your tax liability is or will be in coming years. In fact, we could even show you a pro forma of 10 40, but we don’t do tax preparation. However, we have to be as certified financial planners, be versed as best we can in the ever-changing tax laws because they are ever changing. Right. I will tell you that. But yes, it’s part of overall financial planning is doing tax planning, but as WIN said, it’s not tax preparation.
Speaker 5 (30:26):
And a lot of clients talk about how their CPA doesn’t do tax planning. Right. They’ll do the taxes. Exactly. They won’t help them with what does it look like in a couple three years down the road.
Speaker 4 (30:34):
Exactly. And the tax planning comes in when you’re talking about Roth conversions. Huge. What is the best time to do the Roth conversions and the impact of making that decision? And we’ve seen the disasters come into our office where somebody made that large Roth conversion and didn’t realize the tax consequences of that, how it impacts the taxation of their social security, perhaps their Medicare and just bad decision. It sounds like a good idea, but without proper tax planning as certified financial planners would do, it can’t hurt you. So I hear the music again, Laurel, take it away.
Speaker 3 (31:04):
8 4 4 5 8 0 9 3 2 6. That’s the number to call in right now. Get that question in before the end of the show. Your financial questions about retirement, about investments, about stocks (844) 580-9326. You can call in with your question, you can text in with your question or you can always open up that WDBO app. Tap the open mic button and leave your question there. You can also call off the air to one of the certified financial planners if you’d like. Rodney Owen B taking calls off the air at 4 0 7 8 6 9 9800 you’re listening to On The Money Show where we’re planning tomorrow today with the Certified Financial Group. Well thank you so much for tuning in, listening to On the Money here on WDBO. You can listen on 1 0 7 3 FM AM five 80 or of course in that WDBO app, certified Financial group not only answers your questions for free every Saturday, but they hold really cool workshops. And you guys have some workshops coming up, right?
Speaker 4 (32:19):
We do. Tell us about it.
Speaker 5 (32:20):
Yes. We got one coming up on March the sixth and it is Social security planning, basic rules and claiming strategies. And that’s hosted by Charles Curry here in our learning center. That’s on a Wednesday evening from six 30 I believe until eight
Speaker 4 (32:36):
About that.
Speaker 5 (32:37):
And then we’ve got another one coming up on the 23rd, tax efficient investing and distribution strategies, and that’s hosted by Gary Aley.
Speaker 4 (32:46):
These are all absolutely free. You can go to our website financial group.com, that’s financial group.com. You can make your reservation right there. We hold these in our, what we call our learning center here up on Altamont Springs at our office and easily accommodate 30 people. It’s state-of-the-art, audio, visual equipment absolutely free. Leave your checkbook at home if people still carry checkbooks. Yeah, they usually do. Some do. We’re not trying to sell you something. What we want to do is give you information so you don’t become a financial casualty and maybe introduce you to what we do is certified financial planners, how we work with clients here in central Florida now for almost 50 years. And this way, whether you need financial planning now, retirement planning, now, investment management now, or sometime in the future, you’ll give us an opportunity to earn your business. So go to financial group.com, click on events, you can make your reservation right there. And to wrap up, we’ve got one more text question there. I saw Laurel.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
Yeah, we sure do. It’s from Julie in Orange City and they ask what is passive income and is it good?
Speaker 5 (33:43):
Well, passive income is something that’s generated without your effort, your activity. It’s not salary and wages. So it’d be income, dividend income, a lot of real estate. Now that’s changed if you’ve got rental property, some of that’s considered passive income if you’re not really actively involved in the management of that. So it’s income that you’re not having to work for. So yeah, I mean it’s typically good because that’s typically how we define someone who’s financially independent is once that passive income meets their living expenses, then they are financially independent,
Speaker 4 (34:17):
Dividends, interest, rental income, whatever that might be. And the course is taxed in different ways depending on what kind of asset it is, where it might be held. But passive income is something that we strive for because one of these days that paycheck does stop and then you’ve got passive income and social security, maybe a pension, and then your savings and investments. And our job is to build the portfolio to help you supplement that social security and that pension so you can enjoy your lifestyle. That’s what Win and I and the 14 other certified financial planners do day in and day out for our clients here working for you as fiduciaries for a fee. If you want more information about what we do and how we do it, we encourage you to go to our website, that’s financial group.com, financial group.com, learn all about win and me and everybody else here. That’s right. So I see we’re up against the time here. Laurel, it’s been a pleasure being with you this weekend. We miss Josh, but you know you’re pretty good baby. Yeah, thanks.
Speaker 3 (35:06):
I can hang in there I guess
Speaker 4 (35:07):
A little bit. No, you’re very good. We appreciate you’re sitting in the chair for him this morning and we appreciate all the calls from our listeners this morning. So once again, if you want to know who we are, what we do and sign up for the workshops, please go to our website financial group.com and you can reach Rodney OBE right now in our office at 4 0 7 8 6 9 9 8 0 0. That’s 4 0 7 8 6 9 9800 and he’ll be glad to chat with you and if fella is busy, please hang on. He promise it’s call you back or if you leave a message.
Speaker 3 (35:36):
Alright, you’ve been listening to another great edition of the On the Money Show here on WDBO where we’re planning tomorrow. Today with the Certified Financial Group.