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Welcome to How to Retire on Time, a show that answers your retirement questions. Say goodbye to the oversimplified advice you've heard hundreds of times. This show is about getting into the nitty-gritty so you can make better decisions as you prepare for retirement. Text your questions to 913-363-1234 and we'll feature them on the show. Don't forget to grab a copy of the book, How to Retire on Time, or check out our resources by going to www.retireontime.com.
Hey, thanks for joining. Here's a question I was recently asked on my show, how to retire on time. Take a look. This this is gonna take the rest of our time. Can you share different strategies to help prepare a couple for when one spouse passes?
Mike:Gonna give you some themes on this one. So, the first theme is worst case scenario. What happens if one spouse passes very very quickly? And you have to ask yourself, what's the single tax bracket look like? And where would the assets be at that point?
Mike:So, generally speaking, if you have one of them, one spouse that files for Social Security later, what's the better Social Security amount? Because the surviving spouse gets the higher Social Security benefit. Is there a pension? Is there not a pension? Is there annuity income stream?
Mike:Is there not? If there is, are they all 100% survivability or not? So then you're gathering, okay, well here's the income stream and then here's the gap between the income sources that are coming in as a single individual now. Here's the single tax bracket. Here's the net income we want.
Mike:And then here's portfolio burden. That's the standard that allows you to work backwards. Uh-huh. Now that says, hey, you know, gosh, someone's health is doing really really well, we should have longevity. Or someone's health is declining.
Mike:We need to maybe push the limits a little bit. Maybe we're going into the thirty second percent tax bracket, which is still a good deal if you look at historically what the effective tax rates have been. Still a good deal, but you might push it a little bit more to get more money from the IRA or Roth so that the surviving spouse isn't hit as hard with RMDs and with taxes and so on. But you start with end of life resources. The income systems.
Mike:The tax buckets, pre tax, after tax, tax free buckets. And then you work backwards and you have to ask yourself, what's more important? What am I willing to push? And what are we gonna gain from that? What are we gonna lose from And those are very dynamic conversations.
Mike:But it's pretty I mean, the planning process falls on what's right for that individual or that couple. It's usually the wife who typically lives longer that's more concerned. But ladies, if you're in here and you're not talking to your advisor, if you're not expressing your opinions, if you have no voice, find another advisor that's willing to give you a voice. Because the retirement plan's probably more for you than anyone else. Right.
Mike:And typically, it's the guy that's doing the investing and the wife is saying, I trust him. He's got it. Well that works until he's dead. And then you're stuck picking up the pieces and having to learn all this. Right now, what is the prepared reaction that you are willing to experience for if that were to happen?
Mike:And maybe he lives longer. But you have to be able to find that consensus that works for both of you. Don't miss out on that. Yeah. Alright.
Mike:We're gonna We got one last thing here, Chris, then we're gonna wrap up the show. And we have not turned on our annuity yet and are allowed to do partial conversions. That's awesome. This is doable. Lifetime income is planned to be used for our personal pension income.
Mike:Yep. So I'm thinking about doing IRA Roth conversions. Chris, I would say just schedule a call. There are still many factors, but that's You're in a great spot. If you can do partial conversions today, maybe you can do it also when the year when the income's turned on.
Mike:A lot of factors here. But this is the point of the planning process. Trying to give you as much as I can without giving you financial advice because advice is for the individual. This is information to the masses. Mhmm.
Mike:So appreciate you all being here today. It's it's been a lot of fun. As always, we are live every Tuesday at noon. If you're on our newsletter, you can get the link and interact with us. We post the show every Saturday morning on YouTube.
Mike:And if you're in the Kansas City area, then you're also hearing us on the radio on KCMO and other stations locally. Having a lot of fun. Thanks for being here. Don't forget, download the book How to Retire On Time today by going to retireontime.com. And if you're within five years of retirement or already retired, start the planning process now.
Mike:It is much easier to put together a more comprehensive retirement plan while the markets are up. Yeah. It is much harder to help you if the markets have gone down. I don't know if the markets are gonna go down next month or in five years. Just saying it's a good time to get these ducks in a row.
Mike:And if you want to work with a flat fee, one time plan operation that does it flat fee simple, build the plan, call it good, We might be your solution. Mhmm. Retire on time.com/call is how you get a hold of us and schedule that introduction call. Thank you all for being here. We'll see you next week.
Mike:That's all the time we've got for today's show. If you enjoyed the show, thanks for tuning the podcast. Don't forget to subscribe, leave a rating, and as always, tell your friends, the larger the subscribers are, the better the content can be that fuels your preparation for retirement. We'll see you in the next show.