Speaker 1 (00:00):
Financial planning and investment management services provided through Certified Advisory Corp cac, a federally registered investment advisor. CAC is a federally registered investment advisor and only transacts business in states where it’s properly registered or is excluded or exempted from registration requirements. 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 subject’s discussed. Discussions and answers to questions do not involve the rendering of personalized legal tax or investment advice, but are limited to the dissemination of general information. Listeners should consult with a legal tax and or investment professional for advice specific to their needs.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Stay tuned for on the Money Central Florida’s most listened to financial call and show brought to you by Certified Financial Group in Almont 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 five 80 WDBO and enjoy the show.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Good morning and welcome to On the Money, and it’s a special edition of On the Money because it’s the very first episode of 2026 here on WDBO. It’s a groundbreaking episode the first one of the year here on the Money brought to you by the Certified Financial Group where we have Charles Curry and Joe Bert guiding us through another great hour of radio here with the certified financial group. Every voice you hear besides mine is always a certified financial planner. So the advice that comes with years and decades of experience, I think Joe Bert, the last time we talked, it was over 400 years experience inside the walls, but that could have been maybe a year or two ago since he said that. So it could be 428 years of experience.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
It actually, it’s beyond 450, 450
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Now you guys, my goodness, time keeps moving along. There’s
Speaker 4 (02:25):
1717 CFPs here. So there
Speaker 3 (02:27):
You go. Lot of smart people here. Yeah, so if you’re looking
Speaker 4 (02:29):
For a long time.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
So it’s always good to have that certified financial group here on your brain when anything comes to your financial future. So you just know you have experience in your corner and experience is something you need because there has been a lot of changes here in the financial world and it’s good to just have someone who’s seen it all and done it all in your corner. Just to kind of ease some of the woes that you may have coming into this new year. There’s a lot of uncertainty in the market, uncertainty in all kinds of stocks, bonds, trades, housing market. And so just to have a certified financial planner with a certified financial group in your corner to help you make a plan to help you let you know if you need a plan to help you, how far in depth your plan needs to be in order to retire with the number that you want to retire and live successfully. That’s what they do here at the Certified Financial Group. Joe Charles, how are we doing today?
Speaker 4 (03:23):
We’re doing great and happy New Year to you. It’s good to be with you. Start a new year here. I don’t know how many years we’ve been doing this here on WDBO is closing in on
Speaker 3 (03:30):
40 over 450.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
No, we haven’t been on WDBO before 50. That’s a pre Marconi. Yeah, but we’re here as we have been for many years, taking our listeners calls, answering questions that might be on your mind. We are here to inform you things about, you might be thinking about your IRA, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, real estate, long-term healthcare annuities, life insurance, reverse mortgages, all that more the things that Charles and I, the 15 other CFPs work with our clients providing retirement planning, investment management Monday through Friday for a fee on Saturday morning. We are here for you absolutely free. So we are here for you this morning and we’ve got a topic this morning. Charles, what is it?
Speaker 5 (04:07):
Yes, this morning of course. Happy new Year to you Josh, as well as to Joe and of course happy to be here with you this morning. It’s hard to believe it’s January and that we’re starting a new year or fresh calendar or fresh start. I know we’re all working on New Year’s resolutions. Joe, have you gotten a New Year’s resolution this year?
Speaker 4 (04:24):
Well, the resolution is continuing what I’ve started last year and that’s a continuing exercise program.
Speaker 6 (04:30):
As
Speaker 4 (04:30):
We age here, you got to keep the bones and the muscles and things moving in the right direction or at least keep ’em moving at all and exercise is a great way to do that. So I started a program last year and the resolution is a continuant in 2026. How about you?
Speaker 5 (04:46):
Yeah, same thing. I think all of us want to exercise more and eat better. I think those are two main keys. And then the other one for the importance of today’s topic is around financial fitness and getting our financial house in order is another place as we start New Year’s resolutions. It’s something important, especially for the industry we’re in and I think a lot of folks listening to the show need some help around this. And today’s topic has to do with New Year’s resolutions, kind of 10 steps to master your money in 2026. And with that, when we start thinking about financials and our financial planning and our house, it’s really important to kind of work muscles besides our own physical muscles is that financial muscles in our head and that financial discipline, just like hiring a personal trainer to help us exercise more, it’s important also to hire a financial planner like our firm here.
(05:43):
We’ve got 17 of us who are very good at helping folks address what’s most pressing for them and keep them on track. And if you’re not working with us, of course give us a call. We’ll be happy to help you get your financial house in order. And with that in mind as you start the year, I think the first step would be kind just auditing where your reality is you want to take a look back at December. I know it might be painful for some folks to kind of look back a couple of weeks ago and as those credit card bills come in, you need to kind look at where your leakage is and what that means basically is where did your money go that you didn’t account for? And it’s kind of a time to pull out maybe a spreadsheet or one of the different apps that are out there and figure out what’s that number you need or survivor number.
(06:32):
That’s the bare minimum you need to live on. And from there it kind of goes into step number two is having to do a build that emergency fund or that sleep at night type of fund. And what that basically means is having liquidity, looking at what’s the amount of money you need to really cover that bare minimum you need to live. And typically in the financial planning community, you need somewhere between the best thoughts around three to six months that allows you to sleep well at night and make sure that your bills are covered If something happens to you that was unexpected. So
Speaker 4 (07:07):
You’re not putting it on a credit card.
Speaker 5 (07:08):
Correct. So you’re not going in a credit card debt and the outrageous fees that they charge, we do get folks to come in where something does happen to ’em where something unexpected and they just don’t have those reserves. And it’s something that’s very easy to build and it’s important kind of foundation you need when you start looking at your overall financial fitness here in the new year, if you don’t have an emergency account, at least start with a thousand dollars in it and then aim to build that up over time to get at least three to six months of your survivor number kind of built up in there and make sure to keep that into some type of high yield savings account or money market account that’s paying a good rate. I’ve had folks come in and say, oh, I have some money sitting in an emergency fund, but they show me it’s in a bank savings account that’s paying next to nothing
Speaker 4 (07:58):
Or a checking account.
Speaker 5 (07:59):
Correct. Or a checking account too. And just an easy move into something, whether it’s one of the online banks or one of the brokerage accounts out there, find something that’s going to pay you on your money and have that grow at a good rate to keep pace with inflation.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
But once again, that’s it for the emergency stuff. The sleep at night stuff, not to save for the next vacation.
Speaker 5 (08:18):
Correct. It’s sleep at night, not the next vacation because life does happen. It’s unexpected.
Speaker 4 (08:23):
Whereas
Speaker 5 (08:24):
A vacation you’re planning for you keep those two kind of things separated. And I tell folks when they say, oh, I can’t even fund an emergency account. I say, well just try this simple exercise. If you try to live on 90% of your income and take that 10% and put it into that emergency fund, if you can do that, then at least you’re building that over time and that’s not a huge sacrifice. You’re only talking about 10% of your income, not a lot more. And then that brings us in kind of the third step talking about this thing called a debt demolish. And what that basically means is that credit card interests of course are very high and if you’re out there with a credit card balance that has an interest rate that’s over 15 or 20%, you’re really are creating this thing called a snowball effect where it just keeps building and building upon time that you’re never going to get out from underneath that debt. Especially with the cost of interest rates today and how that compounds on you. And definitely it makes sense to speak with somebody that we have here at the firm to help you kind of figure out how do you get out from underneath that, come up with a strategy and really work on getting that debt to go away. You’re just not going to get yourself on the right track towards financial freedom and to be able to retire. Retire well if you have a lot of unnecessary credit card debt. But
Speaker 4 (09:48):
I want emphasize though, we don’t do credit counseling,
Speaker 5 (09:50):
Correct.
Speaker 4 (09:51):
So if you are underwater on your debt, we have resources that can direct you to, but our objective is to get you to and through your retirement years. But if you’re underwater on your debt, like I said, we don’t do credit counseling, but if you have some issues in that regard, we would glad to point you in the right direction to help you.
Speaker 5 (10:07):
And then with that in mind, rolls into the next one having to do with a little fun exercise we do is called a subscription scavenger hunt. And that has to do with looking at your bank statements and your credit card bills going through there and figuring out what are all these different monthly charges that are coming up on my credit card bills and what do they entail and what they involve. Was this something I signed up for as a free subscription that now turned into a subscription? What are the apps that I’m using today that I’m paying for that maybe I don’t need here in the new year? And what are some ways to whittle that list down? I know there’s different commercials out there, companies that will help you kind of figure out where your money’s being spent, but if you can kind of whittle that list down, some folks say a good solution would be just to cancel ’em all in the start of the new year and then really see what you really need, what you need and renew ’em that way or just to start to pick through that list. If you have 10 of ’em, maybe pick one that you don’t really need and cut that out of your budget. All those little things will compound over time in terms
Speaker 4 (11:12):
Of those things sneak up on you before you know it. Your 7, 8, 10, 10 subscriptions that you have and where’d they come from? And they’re automatic, I mean
Speaker 5 (11:22):
That’s the whole thing. It is automatic. They just pull it whether you use it or not, they’re going to be pulling it out your account and especially if they have your credit card number, it’s very easy for them just to continue to bill you into perpetuity unless you take the steps to cut that unnecessary expense out there. And that’s kind of why it’s a scavenger hunt. It’s looking for those different expenses that are hidden throughout our financial lives.
Speaker 4 (11:45):
So that’s step number four.
Speaker 5 (11:47):
That brings us into the thing that comes up on all of us.
Speaker 4 (11:51):
I bet this is number five.
Speaker 5 (11:53):
Yes. Number five.
Speaker 4 (11:54):
I’m paying attention.
Speaker 5 (11:55):
Yes. Thank you. And that has to do with tax season. If you realize that April is going to right around the corner and a lot of us get into this April panic of where all our documents are and where all our financial statements are to get either to our CPA or do our own taxes. If you can start the new year off with kind of creating your own kind paper trail folder, whether it’s a physical one or a digital folder on your computer that as those W twos, 10 90 nines, mortgage statements, all those important financial documents that you receive, just to start filing those right as they come in the door and just do that automatically. And that just builds up that file folder so you’re all ready to go when it comes tax time to do your taxes, you can easily just either pull it off the shelf or go into your computer and it’s there for you. It’s searchable and that way you have all that information handy versus the April tax day panic drill where you’re running around trying to find all those different documents in your files.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
Right?
Speaker 5 (12:58):
And the other things too in there is as you start thinking about taxes, it’s also a good time to take a look at all your deductions and especially if you’re an itemized, make sure to gather up all your receipts from your charitable donations, have your medical expenses from the year before your business mileage. It’s a lot easier to do that at the beginning of the year reflecting on the back of the year of 2025 versus trying to do that all in April. It’s also that time of year where kind of take a look at your retirement accounts, especially if you have a Roth or a traditional IRA, you still have some time to, if you haven’t maxed those out to max out before your tax filing for going back to the previous tax year. And the other thing too is to take a look at your withholdings on your paycheck. If you are one that gets a refund, maybe you’re withholding too much from your paycheck or if you’re, conversely, if you’re one that’s you owning more taxes to the IRS, maybe you need to withhold a little bit more and that’s a good time of year to make those adjustments as you start off here in 2026.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
Yep. Okay. That’s number six.
Speaker 5 (14:07):
Yep. Number six has to do with capturing the match. I challenge the folks I sit down with to do financial plans to talk about looking at your 401k through work or your different retirement plans and making sure that if you have a company match, at least contribute all the way up to get that match. And so that’s an important thing that if you haven’t been doing that, this is the time of year to take a look at your finances and if you make enough income to look to get that match and get that free money your company’s offering you to participate. But
Speaker 4 (14:38):
Don’t stop there. I mean you at least want to get the free money, but you want to max out your contribution to your 401k plan depending on your age. I mean that’s a wonderful thing. That’s what you got to do to build long-term financial security is use your retirement plan.
Speaker 5 (14:51):
Right. And it’s a great vehicle because you’re bringing in pre-tax dollars and that’s growing tax deferred for you and you can get more of those dollars in there, especially at an early age and allow that to compound the old power of compound interest. It’s an amazing thing of how large your retirement can grow to over time. And especially working with talented professionals that can give you advice and guidance, you could really maximize those retirement accounts, especially used for future dollars
Speaker 4 (15:18):
Here at the bumper. Music. Josh, I think we have a couple more. We’ll come back after the break.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
Thank you so much Joe and Charles, two certified financial planners with the certified financial group you are listening to on the Money where we’re planning tomorrow today with the Certified Financial Group. Welcome back to On the Money here on WDBO AM five 80, always streaming inside your WDBO app, I got Charles Curry and Joe Bur here getting us through another great hour of on the money right here on WDBO. The topic of today’s show is 10 10 steps rather to Master your money.
Speaker 4 (16:08):
Yes, we cover the first what, six Charles before the break?
Speaker 5 (16:11):
That’s correct. Having to do with your financial New Year’s resolutions. And so just to wrap up the different steps, we were heading into step number seven and that has to do with the beneficiary audit. It’s something that we recommend everyone take a look at. Very important, very important especially when it comes to your retirement assets, your life insurance policies and such. It’s important to take a look at those and especially starting the new year, look at those beneficiaries, make sure that it’s up to date, life does happen. We have relatives that are passed away and you want to make sure or divorces or new children being born and divorces as well that you want to make sure that you have the right beneficiaries listed on those documents that at your passing those assets go to the right people that you want those assets to go to.
(16:58):
And then rolling into step number eight has to do with a simple concept called like a financial date night. It’s one where money shouldn’t be a conflict in a relationship and I recommend folks just once a month getting together, maybe spend 20 minutes just talking through the numbers and really looking at where their expenses are, where their income is coming in and making sure that they’re staying on track and that they’re not living outside their means. And then the other is a very important one has to do with step number nine is just investing in human capital. It’s something that Warren Buffett has mentioned before, one of the most successful investors out there that any money that he could have spent to help himself develop as a better person, he would feel that was money well spent above and beyond anything that he ever invested in. And whether that’s getting a certification, attending a seminar to educate you more in your job or in your personal life, even buying books in your industry or increasing your skills, whether it’s public speaking or in investment management or whatever it is that’s interesting to you is a good way of
Speaker 4 (18:09):
Spending. You always got to be doing that
Speaker 5 (18:13):
Correct,
Speaker 4 (18:13):
Whether it’s physical or mental, we’ve got to continue to push forward.
Speaker 5 (18:18):
And then lastly, step number 10 just has to do with defining your why here in the new year. Why are you doing this? Why are you going to work? Why are you working the hours that you’re working? Is it to retire early? Is it to buy a home or that vacation home? Is it to put your kid through college and make sure to write this why down on a sticky note and put it in your wallet. So when you’re out there tempted to spend $7 a Starbucks in your coffee and you don’t probably need it, make sure to take a look at that note and that will remind you of what the dream you’re actually working towards and actually building. And that will give you that kind of financial discipline to stick with it and to make sure that you’re taking the right steps to help you achieve that goal.
Speaker 4 (19:04):
So there are a bunch of steps there to 10 steps to, what’d you call it?
Speaker 5 (19:08):
Financial kind of freedom or to there
Speaker 4 (19:10):
You go, things to consider.
Speaker 5 (19:13):
Yeah, things to consider. And I think it’s a good time of year to when we’re doing New Year’s resolutions, it’s usually always focused on eating well, eating less desserts, exercising more. I think we also should think about our financial fitness and that there’s things today that are very simple basic steps that you can do to really put yourself on the right path and those things that you can set up and make them automatic in your life, like contributing more to your 401k retirement plan work and get that growing faster or maximizing your IRAs or Roth IRAs or making sure you’re withholdings being done correctly or checking the beneficiaries. Those are all important things that are little steps that can make a huge difference in your life.
Speaker 4 (19:53):
I hear the bumper music. Josh, take it away. Thank
Speaker 3 (19:55):
You so much. Charles Curry and Joe Bur with the Certified Financial Group giving you 10 steps to master your money as we kick off 2026, you are listening to On the Money where we’re planning tomorrow
Speaker 4 (20:07):
Today
Speaker 3 (20:07):
With the Certified Financial group. Crazy
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Old Welcome back to On the Money Central. Florida’s most listened to financial call and show Bronte. You buy 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 five 80 WDBO and enjoy the rest of the show.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
Welcome back to On the Money here on WDBO AM five 80, always streaming inside your WDBO app. This episode we’re so fortunate to be joined by Charles Curry and Joe Burt, two certified financial planners with the certified financial Group, getting us through another great episode of On the Money, the very first episode of On the Money Here to kickoff 2026. In the first segment, Charles and Joe walked us through 10 steps to master your Money in 2026. A great way to kick off this year. And what do you say guys? We head to the text questions there.
Speaker 4 (21:51):
Yeah, before we do that, I’m going to talk about a workshop that Charles got coming up, right Charles, when is
Speaker 5 (21:55):
That? Yes, half one. That’s a very popular workshop. You’re
Speaker 4 (21:57):
Kicking off the new year.
Speaker 5 (21:59):
That’s correct. Kicking off the new year here on January 10th, which is a Saturday from 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM
Speaker 4 (22:05):
Yeah, next Saturday.
Speaker 5 (22:06):
Coming right up here very quickly on social security and it’s really a one just applies to all of us and really talking about the basic rules and claiming strategies. A lot of folks come to this workshop, it’s absolutely free. We kind of talk through social security important things when it comes to filing for ourselves and that impact on our spouse. So what happens if you’re divorced, what happens if you’re a widower? Whether there’s some of the other different rules that apply to it about taxation and then also about this thing called an earnings test. And there are a lot of different things at play that a lot of folks just aren’t aware of and they come to the workshop, learn a lot, share that information sometimes with their neighbors and realize, hey, there’s a lot more money that’s available to me and they’re a lot more to this versus just making a decision. Do I take it at 62 at full retirement age or wait till I’m 70 and how does that impact my spouse as well?
Speaker 4 (23:04):
Yeah, that’s very, very critical because social security is many cases the foundation upon which you’re building your retirement and you need to understand what the options are. As we say in the ad, social security cannot. They can tell you what your options are, but they can’t tell you what’s best for you
(23:18):
And that’s where planning comes in and you don’t know the questions to ask and how it impacts the rest of your personal financial life. So once again, this is absolutely free. It’s a week from today from 10 to 1130 at our offices here in Altamont Springs. If you want more information about that, I encourage you to go to our website, that’s financial group.com, financial group.com, click on workshops, you make your reservation right there and if you get to here early, you can peer behind the glass here and watch the monkeys here doing the radio show.
Speaker 5 (23:46):
And of course I would look forward to meeting you if you’re able to come to our workshop. Be happy to introduce myself and of course you’re going to come back with a lot of great information and knowledge from that workshop. And the thing about it is, as you mentioned Joe, in regards to making decisions around social security and the impact that has on you, if you make a bad decision around when to file social security, that really impacts your overall financial picture and income in retirement. And we see folks come in who’ve made a bad decision by claiming social security early and that makes us have to utilize more of your assets in retirement, which we could have protected more of that if you had filed social security correctly. Allow more of your assets to grow, allow you to provide more support for your spouse, for your children, grandchildren, or to that favorite charity of yours versus having to utilize more of those monies to support your lifestyle because you made a bad decision around when to claim social security.
Speaker 4 (24:43):
Alright, so we got a text question filled in there, Josh, take it away.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
You got it. Dave in Windermere says, I want to fund a 5 29 plan as a Christmas present for my grandkids. The good thing, even though Christmas already happened, you might be able to open it early because I believe Christmas for taxes is in April. I think everything for taxes is in April. So again, Dave wants to open a 5 29 plan as a Christmas present for his grandkids. What is the maximum amount he can fund it with? Yeah, it must have been one of our text
Speaker 5 (25:12):
Questions kind of thinking about what happened last year. They hadn’t realized what was happening, but in regards to Christmas or whether it’s a gift for your birthday, five twenty nine plan is a great avenue for saving for higher education and it’s an avenue where a lot of folks come to me and to us with questions of I want to give my child some money. And of course the maximum amount you can give to per person is 19,000. And with that, their big question is, what happens when I give ’em the money, if I give ’em it in a certain type of account? Is that money now going to be available for that child or grandchild to tap into and utilize it to spend how they see fit or is it something where there is some control over those assets and with the 5 29 plan, the grandparent or the parent can have control over those assets and how it’s utilized to benefit of that grandchild or child And that is definitely something that will kind of help you going forward. And of course that 19,000 number is based on 2025 kind gift tax.
Speaker 4 (26:24):
It’s also 2026. 2026 as well. The sure. And
Speaker 5 (26:28):
Then the other piece too, that too is that you can do a thing called a super gift, which is a nice neat little estate planning trick that if you’re trying to pull more assets out of your estate and you are wanting to be more generous to your children or grandchildren, you can do up to basically five years worth of gifting, which is up to 95,000. Now
(26:50):
It allows you to really put a lot more money in and as we were talking about earlier today on our radio show about getting money in early and having that compound, if you have the financial capability of doing that type of gifts, just imagine $95,000 in account that’s growing basically tax free of a 5 29 plan, have that compounding at an average market return and that really could be growing doubling over time and really become some legacy or tremendous financial support for your child or grandchild to pay for college and grad school because those are things that continue to get expensive and go up in price.
Speaker 4 (27:31):
I don’t know how you deal with it, Charles, but I recommend that people consider the Florida prepaid plan in addition to the 5 29. I like laying the foundation with the prepay. You’ve got that taken care of whether you do just tuition or two years or whatever it is, you’ve got some of that taken care of, you’ve locked that in and then on top of that layer, the 5 29, but with the Florida prepay as you know, you can use it for Florida schools or a comparable tuition for an out-of-state school. So it’s a pretty good plan. It’s worked out very, very well for many people that have used it over the years. But to answer that question you can use the 5 29 in gifting.
Speaker 5 (28:09):
Correct. And like your question, Joe, in regards to the floor prepaid plan and how I recommend things for folks, I do something very similar to you. I talk about the Florida prepaid plan. That’s not something that we offer, it’s done through the state of Florida. It is something where you are basically prepaying today prices for college in the future for your child or grandchild and it’s pretty amazing that you can just go ahead and lock in that price. It is something that’s uncertain. We don’t know what cost of college is going to be 20 years from now. And if you could prepay it, that gives you at least that certainty that you know that your child can go to college in the Florida state school system at you’ve already paid for it
Speaker 4 (28:52):
And it doesn’t have to be a lump sum. You could do a monthly,
Speaker 5 (28:54):
You could do monthly, you could do it over a period certain, there’s lots of flexibility with it that allows you lots of different payment options to get that going for you and it allows you to lock in kind of today’s prices on a future liability. And then you layer on top of that the 5 29 plan, especially for myself, I’m an MBA or my master’s in business administration, so I have a graduate school degree and that’s something we anticipate with our children in terms of them going to grad school. And so you can layer the 5 29 plan to pay for that. And that’s another thing. And the flexibility of 5 29 plans have gotten a lot more flexible, a lot more things you can do with those. And so both of those are great vehicles when it comes to saving for college.
Speaker 4 (29:41):
Now the distinction is with the 5 29 plan, they’re investment plans.
Speaker 5 (29:44):
They’re
Speaker 4 (29:45):
Offered through mutual fund companies. So what you want to have is a low cost mutual fund. Vanguard is one of the better providers in that regard. And so you invest with the mutual fund and it grows over time and when the time comes to spend that money for higher education, it is tax free. On the other side of the coin, the Florida prepaid is kind of a guaranteed,
Speaker 6 (30:05):
So
Speaker 4 (30:05):
That’s why I kind of like to layer the, get the guaranteed out of the way for certain of those expenses and then put the 5 29 on top of it. So whatever your situation is, whatever your budget allows, that’s what you want do. So I see what we’re another tax because you want to add something to that?
Speaker 5 (30:19):
Yeah, go ahead. Just the other thing too, when we’re talking about Florida prepaid, most of those have to do with just the cost of college tuition. Some of ’em does housing and some does other things. And the nice thing about the 5 29 plan, it can cover a lot more other costs outside of what the free Florida prepaid program plays or pays for.
Speaker 4 (30:37):
For sure. We get another text question there, Josh.
Speaker 3 (30:40):
We did, and we’re kind of on the same topic right now because Michael is asking, he’s looking to set aside some money for his kids’ college education. He wants to know should he do a 5 29 plan, the Florida pre-plan plan. We kind of touched on that, but then he throws in this third option or should I borrow money off my home?
Speaker 5 (30:57):
Yeah, it’s a good question. I think I would go off of what we’ve been talking about so far and Michael appreciate the question. I think you would first want to build a foundation with a Florida prepaid plan and then from there look to build a 5 29 plan on top of it. If you have additional savings that you want to put towards your child’s college education, borrowing off your home. Some folks will talk about using a home equity line or HELOC use that to borrow to pay for college as a way of doing it. I typically caution people to borrow money to pay for higher education. It’s better to take steps on the front end when the child is fairly young, they’re starting to save towards college education. That’s a better,
Speaker 4 (31:42):
I’m not crazy about using your home equity for college education.
Speaker 5 (31:45):
Correct. Especially in this day and age where some of your kids might be boomerang kids that come back
Speaker 4 (31:50):
And
Speaker 5 (31:51):
All.
Speaker 4 (31:51):
Yep, for sure, for sure. So you’re going to know the text question there, Josh. I saw it come in.
Speaker 3 (31:55):
We do. We’ll keep the kid theme going on right now because Taylor says she’s learned a lot from listening to your show, but she wants to know how can she get her kids interested in investing?
Speaker 5 (32:05):
And that’s a great question in terms of getting your kid interested in investing. I’ll use a personal example of, for me, I got interested in investing at a very young age because my grandfather gave me a share of Walt Disney stock and every quarter I would get a dividend check in the mail that would take down to my local bank and deposited it into my bank savings account.
Speaker 4 (32:29):
Did you get the certificate?
Speaker 5 (32:31):
I do. You still have it? Unfortunately I don’t have the certificate anymore. But yes, those are a beautiful thing in terms of the artwork on those certificates. But it was something that got me interested because as a typical kid, I would mow lawns in the summer to earn money that I could utilize to spend as I saw fit during the school year and just some spending money and with that stock certificate when I got it and I was like, what do you mean? Every quarter I get a dividend check of something. I didn’t have to go out and earn
Speaker 6 (33:01):
That,
Speaker 5 (33:02):
The power of investing in other businesses and that I of course had my lawn care business and that I can invest in Walt Disney, a company that’s just down the street here in Orlando and a theme park that’s done real well. And so I was like, well, how can I take more of my earned money from mowing lawns and buy more Disney stock? And so I started buying more and more shares and of course getting more and more dividends every quarter. And those dividends of course were higher than anything I was earning at the bank. And so I said, Hmm, there’s something here maybe I could start to continue to invest in. Well-run American companies that can compound my money over time. And it was pretty amazing that you could take an investment like that and if you’re just let’s say earning 7% rate of return on that investment and in 10 years I’ve doubled my money, which was far and away much more superior than what I was earning in my bank savings account at the time.
Speaker 4 (33:59):
Another alternative to that is to invest in a mutual fund and to look at the underlying investments in that fund. And this way the children own a whole variety of different kinds of companies that they can follow and track. And that’s another way to do it,
Speaker 5 (34:15):
Especially in one of those mutual funds. It probably has a lot of the different companies or products of the child or grandchild enjoys and uses today, whether it’s your Apple iPhone or going to Starbucks or a lot of the different retail clothing brands are all probably wrapped up in that mutual fund and give them something that they can look at and when they’re going out and buying those products, they know they’re actually spending money on something that will in turn help them out on the investment side.
Speaker 4 (34:43):
That’s the way to do it. Now I hear the bumper music, Josh, take it away. Thank
Speaker 3 (34:46):
You so much. And this question comes from Josh and the WDBO studios. How do I get a time machine so I can go back and be Charles Curry’s first employee at the lawn company, so he’s paying out Disney dit. I love that. That is great. Again, we got Charles Curry and Joe ett us to another great hour of on the money here on WDBO you are listening to On the Money where we’re planning tomorrow today with the Certified Financial Group.
(35:32):
Welcome back to On the Money here on WDBO AM five 80, always streaming inside your very own WDBO app. So fortunate to be joined by Joe Burt and Charles Curry on the end of the first episode of 2026. They got us through another great hour of on the money. If you want to join the conversation, open up that WDBO app and send in your question inside and we can play it back at this point in a future episode of On the Money. But send them on in, we hear them all and we’ll get your question back live on the air. Charles Joe got about four minutes left. What do you say we have back to these text questions here. Let’s
Speaker 4 (36:12):
Do it. Alright.
Speaker 3 (36:12):
This one comes to us from Matt in Orlando and Matt says, I’m thinking of donating some Coca-Cola shares that I’ve held for some time to my church because I think the church would benefit from owning them over time versus giving them cash this year. Is that a good idea?
Speaker 4 (36:28):
It’s a great idea. Why is it a great idea, Charles?
Speaker 5 (36:31):
It’s a great idea because you’re giving highly appreciated asset to a charity and what that basically means is that instead of selling those Coca-Cola shares and having to pay capital gains tax on it and then giving it to your church, you’re actually giving. So let’s say it’s a hundred dollars and you’re paying capital gains, let’s save 20%. So you end up giving your church $80 if you gave ’em just the highly appreciated stock outright, you’re giving them a hundred dollars directly so the church ends up with more money versus less and you eliminate that tax that you’re going to have to pay on selling the stock before you give it to the church.
Speaker 4 (37:09):
All charities pretty much have the ability to handle that stock transfer. So I’ve done it many, many times for clients. If you have appreciated assets, of course charities will also take real estate, they’ll take used cars, they’ll take a lot of stuff,
Speaker 5 (37:24):
Right. I think the other part of the question was thinking about with the church and having them hold the stock going forward. Typically churches aren’t in the business managing those type of investments. So what they would do is once they receive it, they’re going to liquidate it
Speaker 6 (37:39):
To
Speaker 5 (37:39):
Get that to cash, to utilize for other things in their day-to-day operations. But it is a good way of moving assets that are in a tax situation to making it a tax-free type of exchange from your pocket to the churches.
Speaker 4 (37:55):
That’s the way to do it.
Speaker 5 (37:56):
It’s definitely a good way of doing that.
Speaker 4 (37:58):
Before we wrap up, I’m going to mention once again that we offer what we call score my funds for our listeners, it’s an opportunity for you to get an objective look at the funds that you might have in your brokerage account, your IRA, your 401k, your funds or ETFs is totally free. It’s from the Center for Fiduciary Studies. It’s a vehicle that we use to determine what investments you want to offer to our clients and whether or not they should be kept in their portfolio. And it’s very simple. Just go to score my funds.com, score my funds.com. You’ll come to a website you put in the tickers and if you don’t know the tickers, there’s a pull down for the name and that’ll give you the ticker and we will send you a report and grade your funds on 11 distinct criteria. Everything from manager tenure to performance to risk versus return. And it’ll tell you whether or not the funds should be sold or held onto to. And we’d be glad to send that report to you absolutely free. That’s score my funds.com. And if you’ve got a workshop a week from today, Charles, once again, what’s the deal there?
Speaker 5 (39:00):
That’s on Social Security planning and that’s on January 10th from 10:00 AM to 1130. And we highly recommend you register for this workshop because it definitely fills up quickly, is one that you’ll learn a lot of information if you can make the time to come out and see us. And of course we look forward to greeting you here at our learning center here at Certified Financial Group. And the other piece too about that score my funds, it’s a good way to start the new year in terms of your financial fitness and your New Year’s resolutions to take a look at your investments and make sure those are high quality investments going into the new year and there might be opportunities there to improve things for yourself. There
Speaker 4 (39:36):
You go. I hear the bumper. Josh, take it away.
Speaker 3 (39:39):
I’ll take it from here. Joe Berg, Charles Curry, two certified financial planners with the Certified Financial Group. Thank you so much for kicking off the year in such a great way. Here you are listening to On the Money Where we’re planning Tomorrow Today with the Certified Financial Group.
