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Real World Retirement is a podcast hosted by Alexander Pushman, dedicated to exploring all aspects of retirement planning with the help of expert financial advisors. Each episode dives into crucial topics like Social Security, investing, taxes, legacy planning, and income strategies, offering real-world insights and practical advice. Listeners are encouraged to stay engaged by following the podcast, sharing their questions, and shaping future episodes tailored to their retirement needs.
00;00;00;04 - 00;00;30;16
Unknown
Welcome back, everybody. Real world retirement. The podcast. Thank you for joining us. I am your host, Alexander Pushkin. And what we try to do with this podcast is really shed some light on to maybe topics or concepts of financial planning that a lot of financial advisors may not be talking about. And, or if you're kind of new to retirement or you're pre-retirement, what are the things you should be thinking about to avoid future problems aka get proactive so you don't have those problems later, right?
00;00;30;19 - 00;00;56;07
Unknown
So real world retirement, the podcast again, we have a ton of great stuff out there. If you if this is your first episode you're watching, please go back, watch some other stuff. We got tons of good, good content. My goal is to bring different advisors with different expertise and different perspectives. To again, help give you education, help give you perspective that not only you should have as a a client or a family looking at a financial planner, but also giving you the perspective of the financial advisor as well.
00;00;56;07 - 00;01;20;01
Unknown
So, today I'm excited. I have Jacob Black, my man from Miami, Ohio. And, Jacob, do me a favor before we kind of jump into it just so everybody knows we're going to be talking. The topic of today is opportunity cost of waiting. And there's going be three specific things we kind of dive into. But Jacob, awesome advisor, great guy.
00;01;20;02 - 00;01;35;09
Unknown
Tell everybody a little bit about your story, man. What what got you into the business? Why do you do what you do? Absolutely. I was a big hype up there, actually. I appreciate that, man. A lot of pressure all of a sudden. No, it's kind of. I always say I. When I was five years old, I never said I want to be a financial advisor.
00;01;35;10 - 00;01;58;23
Unknown
I feel like all of our stories, things in our life have put us in that spot where we're at currently. But, growing up, it was living paycheck to paycheck, never knowing if we're going to have money to pay the car bill, the water bill. That's very common situation I hear several times, really, at the end of the day, I knew I wanted to help people, but everyone knows 2008 every all the tough, hard times in the market that came along with that.
00;01;58;24 - 00;02;19;17
Unknown
Right. My grandma got her PhD or my grandfather passed, and my grandmother inherited his, 41K from General Motors. Okay. And she was working with an advisor, and the advisor simply did nothing. And unfortunately, she lost half of her portfolio just like that. And really, at that point, it was me realizing I wanted to do this for a living.
00;02;19;17 - 00;02;39;15
Unknown
Yeah. And there were several family members of mine who worked with advisors, and I was starting to ask the tough questions. Learning this information early on and all the questions they didn't have answers to those. And my questions, what are you talk to your advisor about? And it was the simple thing of catching up with holidays. The vacations, all this fun stuff.
00;02;39;15 - 00;03;07;00
Unknown
But it didn't. They wasn't building a solid retirement plan for them, not creating that confidence and clarity for their finances. Right. Really, that showed me the bad side of this industry. And I've kind of vowed from this, that point on that we were going to do things differently and truly help people. I like that, and if you don't mind, talk a little bit about your personal life with, again, you know, not to put you on the spot, but just because I know it and I think it's relevant, you know, and I think it's a good way to show your, your, you know, who you are.
00;03;07;03 - 00;03;25;07
Unknown
Talk, talk a little bit to the audience if you don't mind sharing. Yeah. Go for it. Kind of what your role in your with your family. Yeah. Mom you're, you know, just walking down that because I think it's it's good information. It is. I mean, my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer and, 20, 22, and it was just this really hard.
00;03;25;09 - 00;03;47;14
Unknown
I mean, it's just something you don't really expect to happen, right? And it's interesting, me and I connect with people nowadays when they tell me that a family member was diagnosed because I understand, I understand what goes along with it, beforehand, it's just it's a weird relationship because cancer is one of these things that can be cured, but there's always that potential.
00;03;47;14 - 00;04;11;26
Unknown
It might not. Right. And it's not a place of too sure of how to react to it. Right. And, I'm very happy to report my mom was diagnosed and not happy to report, but she was diagnosed in 2022. Went through the treatments, radiation, chemo. Here we are in 2025, and she is happy, healthy. We saw some health issues as she gets older, but she is, living life and loving it, so.
00;04;11;28 - 00;04;28;05
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah, knock on wood for sure. But every time I have clients in my office, I just had somebody in here a month ago, and she's just in tears because her husband has gotten breast cancer for the second time, and she just doesn't know if she's gonna be able to make it through retirement. And it's just a place where her husband got cancer.
00;04;28;05 - 00;04;46;26
Unknown
Her husband got cancer. And it's, I understand, on the care caregiver side of things that pressure like your job piece. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And she had to retire because of it. Right. And it's really put strain on things. And it's really been good to be able to connect with people in that capacity and know that you're not alone.
00;04;46;27 - 00;05;06;11
Unknown
There's other people that have in your spot currently and have went through that. Right. And being able to be a support for people. Yeah. Amen to that. And again, you know, my personal take is I have actually my mother had breast cancer three times. And I know when you had first told me that, that, you know, resonated with me and and again, God, God willing, she's been, cancer free for over ten years.
00;05;06;11 - 00;05;23;07
Unknown
Right? Awesome. Huge deal. But it's a struggle a lot of us go through. And it's like once you go through it, whether you person that through your watch, some of your family, it's relevant, you know what I mean? And it changes your perspective in our job pertaining to like okay, well what can we do ahead of time to make sure if something if a curveball.
00;05;23;07 - 00;05;41;13
Unknown
Oh, I got to retire tomorrow and I was planning on work for three more years. Right. And like, you know, we go down that route. So, today's topic, you know, jet, jet, Jacob does a great job of calling a spade a spade, I would say. Right. Yeah. Very good, very straightforward stuff. Straightforward. You shoot it for you and, you know, I always know where I'm at.
00;05;41;13 - 00;05;58;02
Unknown
You know what I mean? Which I appreciate out about, you know, but, you know, when we talk about the opportunity cost of waiting, there's three really areas you want to dive into. Number one, you know, waiting creates hidden cost. Right. And we're going to talk about that, life events kind of like we were talking about life events don't wait.
00;05;58;03 - 00;06;15;24
Unknown
Life happens. Life happens. And you got to be prepared and you have solutions and strategies and all these fun things. And then lastly, you know, proactive planning equals long term wins. I love it. So the three things we're going to kind of dive in. So let's start with the first. So overall we're talking about the opportunity cost of waiting.
00;06;15;24 - 00;06;37;06
Unknown
What does it cost you when you wait to make a decision. When you make to make an adjustment because the one thing in life that I think we all know is change is inevitable, right? It's just absolutely coming. Amen. So when we talk about, you know, waiting creates hidden costs. What are you talking about? Yeah. I mean, when we talk about retirement, I think being our industry, everyone immediately goes to the investment side and.
00;06;37;07 - 00;07;02;13
Unknown
Right, we're investment guys, and that's all we touch on really. It's anything in someone's financial warehouse as anything from Medicare to taxes to how where's my income coming from? Simply in retirement? Just on that tax piece, since I touched on that in the last five years, we've had three large pieces of legislation come out that have completely changed the retirement realm for people in retirement, approaching retirement, or even thinking about retirement.
00;07;02;15 - 00;07;20;17
Unknown
We don't know what's coming down the pike. And, I had a lady come in a couple of weeks ago and she's looking to retire in May. She came to one of our educational seminars, and she's looking to retire, and we can't move any money over. We can't help her in that capacity, manage that aspect of things. But guess what?
00;07;20;19 - 00;07;42;20
Unknown
She doesn't have the guessing game of Will I be okay when retirement comes? And what is the first step that we're going to do when I retire? Yeah, the plans done. It's laid out, but the beautiful aspect is we may not be able to manage the money on that side, but let's get your estate plan in order. Let's start the ball rolling with figuring out how Medicare is going to happen for you, how Social Security is going to happen.
00;07;42;22 - 00;08;03;20
Unknown
And again, we don't know what the future holds. We know what happens right now. So let's plan on that and get you moving in the direction of your goals. And and was that was that the one you were talking about where you guys were talking about the big beautiful bill. Absolutely. And and you, you kind of already said it, but just expand a little bit because you were basically telling me before we started recording is, hey, I was talking with this client.
00;08;03;20 - 00;08;25;02
Unknown
Right. And we were talking about oh the big beautiful Bill, everything's locked in. And what's your perspective on it? Absolutely. So the question was around Roth conversion simply I mean, Roth conversions, what's been real advantageous for people to do in the last several years is, well, tax rates are going to increase in the future, right? Well, July came around this year and the one big beautiful bill came out.
00;08;25;08 - 00;08;47;18
Unknown
And the thing everyone paid attention to is rates are locked in. Now indefinitely. Well, I always put a little asterisk beside that when we talk about the government. Right. I mean, what does indefinite mean in the eyes of the government? Until what happens? What we can control, like I said, is right now we know it rates are right and what the future looks like in the present with, yeah.
00;08;47;18 - 00;09;09;14
Unknown
So let's go ahead and start making that an opportunity, because we are in the lowest tax rate environment that we've been in almost our entire country's history. There was a point in the early 1900s where, tax rates were every dollar you made $0.92. That was taxable income really makes you want to go to work and work. Was that during World War 1 or 2?
00;09;09;14 - 00;09;27;09
Unknown
I guess it was right between it. Was it okay? Right, right. I know it was in that ballpark. I can't remember the exact year. But so when you say, you know, the hidden cost of waiting, to your point, being proactive. Proactive, of course, and you use that client, that's a phenomenal thing. Hey, she's retiring, but she's not there yet.
00;09;27;09 - 00;09;44;03
Unknown
She doesn't have access to her money. But you provided some confidence and clarity for her. Absolutely. And that you're going to be okay. Be. And you know what else kind of came from that conversation? Absolutely. And it just came to the place of a lot of education. I mean, that's one thing I really proud of myself in is the education point.
00;09;44;03 - 00;09;59;28
Unknown
If you're not going to if we're not going to have a relationship together and move forward together, I at least once you had the education, what's happened with your plan? I had I experienced too many times early on in my career. People come and I start asking them questions specifically about their plan and the like. I have no idea.
00;09;59;28 - 00;10;22;24
Unknown
So and so my advisor, my husband who my uncle, whoever deals with this for me and my goal for everyone is they're able to leave. And maybe someone who doesn't know their situation explain on a high level, maybe not the nuances, right? But I'll be able to dive in and explain things. So looking at, well, when are we going to start pulling social Security, when's that withdrawal strategy going to take place?
00;10;22;24 - 00;10;41;08
Unknown
Well, how soon do we need to enroll? So Social Security hits when I'm actually want it to when I retire. Right. Medicare. There's certain window, certain time frames we have to be aware of. There's differences between advantage plans, supplements, different parts of those. Understanding the nuances. You don't have an estate plan. Well are going to go with the will.
00;10;41;08 - 00;10;59;18
Unknown
Are we going to go with the trust and even teeing up things for when she like I said, when she does retire? Well, this is how much we're looking to do in a Roth conversion next year. And here's how it's going to take place. Yeah. So really teeing things up like I said. Or she's retiring in May or June next year and we have the next six months.
00;10;59;18 - 00;11;20;02
Unknown
A full roadmap of how things are going to take place. So I said, Joy, good news for you. When you get to retire, you don't have to worry, right? We're going to sign some papers and everything's just going to take place. And if things aren't moving, it's all right because it's already set up. You're good to go. And how much that does for people, just because we sit in the room all day and we talk to people about their finances.
00;11;20;02 - 00;11;46;29
Unknown
Very sensitive subject. It's like what that does emotionally and psychologically is amazing. You know, you can joke around, it's paying dividends. Yeah. It's like it's it's a big deal. It is. And it's tough to really put a dollar sign or even how much time it takes for that, because my perspective and clients have really resonated with and I've said, this is we've spent 2 to 3 hours together through this appointment process, through this information gathering, through the actual plan presentation.
00;11;47;02 - 00;12;22;22
Unknown
But how many hours are you laying in your bed? Just wondering if you're gonna be okay. Right. And the emotional toll that that goes with. And Brooke, my office manager and Miami, she always gets a laugh out of it, but I always make sure my office has tissues in it because money is a very emotional, personal topic. It's up there with religion and politics, in my opinion, and a lot of the times, and it's really surprised me after doing this for so long, that couples, especially there's some couples who come in and like, we never had so much open and honest conversation about our finances because there's been so much tension.
00;12;22;24 - 00;12;38;12
Unknown
And you've been kind of that knife to cut the tension, to allow us to have those conversations and not feel bad about it. Right. I'm kind of like a mediator. Some days I feel like more like a therapist than the same. Right? Therapist at times, you know, you get a couple going at it like oh okay, guys, I think we can both be right.
00;12;38;12 - 00;12;58;21
Unknown
You know, I was like, let's bring in the couch and spread on the sofa from the window. Right? That's good stuff. So when when we talk about the, you know, again, I would just keep prodding us a little bit when we say the hidden costs of waiting, what would you say are some of the most common mistakes you see people wait on XYZ subjects that ends up coming back and bite them.
00;12;58;23 - 00;13;18;03
Unknown
Oh, I think the biggest one is taxes. I mean, point blank period. Taxes are the biggest area of opportunity in anyone's financial plan that's underprepared for when they retire. If we are prepared for that, RMDs are going to kick in at 73 or 75. Little Asher beside that, that's current rules, right? Those that could always change. Right.
00;13;18;05 - 00;13;39;17
Unknown
Social Security by itself is a great way to lose a lot of money. I mean, there's over 500 different ways to take out Social Security, over 20, 500 different rules or provisions. It gets pretty complex. And if you aren't aware of this, I mean, the government has come out and said that 2022 was the first year where the money coming out of Social Security outweighed the money going in.
00;13;39;19 - 00;13;57;08
Unknown
Wow. So that's right. That's a great point. Absolutely. So we're at a place where Social Security is really pressuring people to take Social Security earlier. Because it means more money stays in social Security. But they will come out and say it is not a place where they will give advice. You need to seek advice from an advisor.
00;13;57;10 - 00;14;15;06
Unknown
Yeah. Like Social Security puts on their website like, hey, we're not here to give you advice. We're here to get you to a decision. Absolutely right. And it's like some crazy number, like over 200,000 people call in a day. Wow. You know, I think the number is like 230,000, give or take. I mean, you can't know everybody's situation at that number.
00;14;15;06 - 00;14;32;04
Unknown
Yeah. No. And just imagine the weight you have to deal with. But yeah. So those are the two big ones. And then the whole Medicare situation kind of goes with taxes. Most people aren't aware that again, taxes are kind of, in my opinion, the New Age advisor. When we talk about investments, I mean, our industry is brought up and guys getting on the phone.
00;14;32;05 - 00;14;56;16
Unknown
So Wall Street. Absolutely. You really makes us sick looking at that. Yeah, right. Taxes are the one area that touch every single part of your financial situation. Right. And retirement is all income based. When we look at Social Security, taxation, withholding Medicare premiums, but I see a lot of people not knowing the ins and outs of Medicare, and I know enough to be dangerous.
00;14;56;18 - 00;15;15;08
Unknown
But we can really be costing a lot at the end of the day if we aren't aware of those things. And yeah, again, market itself just touching on the investment side, whether you love annuities, hate annuities, whether you love the market or hate the market, it's always changing when interest rates go up and down. That directly affects bonds.
00;15;15;10 - 00;15;35;24
Unknown
It directly affects annuities. When you look at the market, I mean, when there's a pullback, most people get pretty scared. That's the optimal time to drop a bunch of money. And right, I'm not saying time the market right. But I'm saying really be proactive and looking ahead so you don't have to time the market. Right. But again, all that stuff can change.
00;15;35;24 - 00;15;50;03
Unknown
And really being up on it to make sure you're making the best plan for you and best decision for you and your family at the end of the day. Right. And and to your kind of point, it's like, hey, here's a couple options that I like because I always say to people, if it's coming out of my mouth, yeah, I like the option.
00;15;50;03 - 00;16;12;01
Unknown
Absolutely. But here's the two pro con. Now let's make an educated choice. Yeah, absolutely. And I think there are a lot of fears around people coming to see us because they're like, oh, they're advisors. They're going to push whatever they want to push. That makes them the most money down their throat. I always tell people, I can go up to the board and write out the best plan for you, but at the end of the day, if you can't sleep at night, I failed my job.
00;16;12;03 - 00;16;32;02
Unknown
My job is to educate you thoroughly on the pros and cons, present options that make sense for your situation, right? Really give a recommendation. Then let's walk through what you think and let's go that direction, right? Whatever it is I want you to feel have that confidence and clarity on your plan. Yeah. And it's funny you say that because like the hidden cost of waiting, I literally had this happen on Monday.
00;16;32;05 - 00;16;55;01
Unknown
I was, sitting in the office, I got a phone call, and, I happened to have, you know, like a 30 minute break, which doesn't always happen. It's blessing in disguise. Right? And, I was like, yeah, I'm available, you know, send them over. And, I get on the phone with this guy, and, he had come to one of my college courses, like a year, year and a half ago, and we talked and then, you know, things got busy.
00;16;55;01 - 00;17;15;28
Unknown
They had a couple of medical things pop up, because timing matters in this business. You know, timing matters. And, he basically is like, Alex, he's like, I'm ready to move forward to your plan. I'm like, all right, well, hey, hold on here. You know, let me get some information. Let me make sure nothing's changed. I don't know if the plan is still 100% sound, because rates of change in straits, market, blah, blah, blah, blah.
00;17;16;00 - 00;17;34;04
Unknown
So we went through all the normal questions I got to get before I can actually like, you know, I say, hey, yes, it makes sense. But, I asked him, I was like, you know what? What's changed? You know what's happened? He's like, I should have done this a year ago. However, obviously, you know, the medical stuff that happened inside my family and, you know, it's just he's like, he's like a mad.
00;17;34;06 - 00;17;49;22
Unknown
He's like, I'm mad that I didn't prioritize it. I'm mad I didn't put this as a more important piece. He's like, because you did such a good job educating. I literally been waiting. And I'm sitting here and I finally get some break around working. I'm like, I got to do this. But, you know, then we went back and like, I did it just because I was curious.
00;17;49;22 - 00;18;06;27
Unknown
I didn't talk to him about this. I wasn't going to rub salt. Yeah, right. But I started looking like, hey, if we would have done what we did, what it would have impacted him over the last year. And I mean, it was a difference. And, you know, he has a decent portfolio, right? But, it was a difference of like, you know, somewhere in the neighborhood of like a 10% reduction in taxes on a year.
00;18;06;29 - 00;18;23;01
Unknown
And it was a difference of like, you know, 7 or 8% on performance. You know, if we just did what we said we were going to do right? That's the game of life, right? It is. And you got to prioritize that stuff. Yeah, absolutely. Not always a dollar figure. Sometimes it's psychological emotional, but there is oftentimes a dollar figure to it.
00;18;23;04 - 00;18;46;15
Unknown
So there's always a dollar figure for our emotion or to whatever decision we go with. But finance is just so interesting. Just money as a whole. Going back to a very sensitive topic. I mean, whatever the money decision, that's usually 80% emotional and 20% logical. Yes. So it's getting somebody, I feel like in your corner that understands that, because that's part of our job, is being able to separate that logical from the emotional.
00;18;46;17 - 00;19;01;00
Unknown
Right? I mean, when the market goes down 15% like it did earlier this year, how is a client going to react? Are they going to jump off the ledge, or are we going to try and pull them back a little bit. And that's where we come in to really help throughout those tough times because the market's going to go down.
00;19;01;00 - 00;19;19;08
Unknown
We know and we are in my opinion I could be wrong. We are paid to not be emotional. Correct. Right. We are. We were paid to not be emotional because you're going to be very emotional about your money, right? You're paying me to not make an emotional decision. You're paying me to make an economic yes data driven right?
00;19;19;12 - 00;19;40;19
Unknown
Yes. Decision. And I think that's important. So the kind of segue to our next piece, because we've kind of already flirted with it. But like life events don't wait. When we say life events don't wait. What are we talking about? And I, you know, again, you gave a good example earlier, but like, you know, there's some some specific either clients cases, best practices.
00;19;40;19 - 00;19;59;09
Unknown
You would you would kind of talk about my my goodness where to start. I'm just going with a client I had we been working together for the last two years. We were planning to retire, I think three years. When we initially started the conversation, he worked for General Motors. He got sent down to Tennessee to work on their new battery plant.
00;19;59;12 - 00;20;16;23
Unknown
Things were going great. Well, last year came around and GM sent buyouts to everyone. Hit. Their intention was not for him to get a buyout, but he's like, this was an opportunity that was presented to me. This is a place where it makes sense for me to go ahead and pull the trigger or not pull the trigger, right.
00;20;16;23 - 00;20;35;13
Unknown
And it's really breaking down. Well, where are we currently at? Really a state of the union. What are the pros really cons. And we're able to make a decision from there. But I've also seen things I mean health care has really transformed since 2020. Right. With Covid the burnout rate is very, very high. But hospitals as a whole just aren't doing well financially.
00;20;35;15 - 00;20;57;02
Unknown
And it's put a lot of my clients who are in that industry and some tight spots where I had a client, we were looking to retire actually next year, and she came in and she's like, I know we were planning on this, but they just sold my department and I have three months to find something else. Or am I going to retire?
00;20;57;04 - 00;21;15;26
Unknown
I always say this financial planning is not a set. And forget a situation. It's we're going to set a plan that create a baseline where we're currently at. But life is going to happen. And that's not something that we can factor in with an equation. Put the number two right. It's the unknown variable. And it's something that we need to consistently be meeting.
00;21;15;26 - 00;21;36;12
Unknown
And it really shocks me when I have families come in and say, I haven't talked to my advisor and one, two I had somebody come in last week. They haven't talked to their advisor in three years. Right. And I just kind of shake my head because where I work is we proactively reach out at least once a year, minimum, minimum, minimum, sometimes for some households are more comfortable two, sometimes four.
00;21;36;14 - 00;21;59;17
Unknown
And again, it goes back to that comfort level. I can do my job the best, but I have clients aren't comfortable. I've failed in my eyes. Absolutely. So being proactive with that stuff, being proactive with the planning, always check in the temperature to make sure we're on the right track is vitally important because if we're good now, if life happens, we can make the adjustments and we always like to plan with worst case scenario.
00;21;59;17 - 00;22;14;02
Unknown
And Bob solutely and I always tell people it's like, well, if this works, if anything goes in our favor, we're going to be jumping over the moon with happiness. We're going to be in really, really good shape at the end of the day. Yeah. And that's just, great way to go about a plan for the worst. Hope for the best.
00;22;14;02 - 00;22;44;25
Unknown
Amen to that. When we talk about life events that you don't always see coming and, you know, life events don't wait, right. We going on 50 different stories from a long term care issue to somebody passing away early, and you lose half your Social Security. There's so many different ones. Is there any specifics that you think is like it's not controllable, it's a non controllable factor, but is there certain things that you would say is like a, hey, if there's 1 or 2 things that you would point out, say, hey, make sure you have a game plan on this topic or this topic.
00;22;44;25 - 00;23;15;12
Unknown
Yeah, I was just I was just kind of thinking about that. So when when you kind of talked about that, I had a client last year, we sat down with an attorney. We got an estate plan done. This was actually last December. I got a call from her family in June, and she was in the hospital. The thing I didn't mention between when we sat down with the attorney and when she ended up in the hospital from a heart attack, is he said he would reach out two weeks after that initial meeting, 15 phone calls later and 15 messages left.
00;23;15;14 - 00;23;33;26
Unknown
We got no answer back. And now the attorney is scrambling to get a state plan around for somebody who is in the hospital with a heart attack, and now he's got a potential liability in those hands. We're outside of that. I don't sit well with the fact that my client was left vulnerable in that spot. So get an estate plan.
00;23;33;26 - 00;23;58;15
Unknown
That should be a number one priority. Get beneficiaries on accounts, make sure that they're there the way they need to be, and make sure your estate in the event that something happens, because life is unpredictable, that things will happen and move the way they should and avoid probate. I've never heard a fun or fast probate story, so making sure things are situated the best way possible and then on the other side is just market timing as a whole.
00;23;58;15 - 00;24;26;09
Unknown
I've had clients who I'm going to, especially going back to 2008. I was an advisor at the time, but let's go back to 2020 a little bit more recently, the people who sold at the bottom, people who, when things got scary, weren't working as an advisor, pulled their money at the worst time. It is scary when it goes down there, but if you don't have somebody in your corner that is separating that emotional from the logical but more importantly is coaching you in your corner.
00;24;26;09 - 00;24;42;14
Unknown
I think coaching I love that, yeah, because when you look at a coach, they're tough on you. But they do everything for your best interests, right? Right. I love that, and I kind of view myself as more of a financial coach for the families I help. Yeah, I like that. But being able to coach people through that time.
00;24;42;14 - 00;25;04;09
Unknown
Yeah. And true diversification. And this is why having somebody who truly has your best interests at heart and not just pushing something where they make how much money from true diversification is always saying you're sorry because everything's up, you're not diversified, but if everything's negative, you're also not diversified. So having somebody who can help you through that process is amazing.
00;25;04;10 - 00;25;29;06
Unknown
Yeah. And I think there's a ton of value in that. And one of the things to your point with the attorney and you know, kind of the specifics you were talking about, that's one of the reasons we we brought that stuff in-house. Absolutely. So like if you're sitting out there and you don't have your income plan, investment plan, tax plan, estate legacy plan, all talking to each other and quote unquote.
00;25;29;06 - 00;25;44;19
Unknown
You're if you have a trust, is it funded. Is your trust outdated. That's one of the reasons that we brought that stuff in-house. Right. And we have a legal and we can do those things in-house is because we were and again, there's good attorneys, there's bad attorneys, right. Good stocks bad there's good know these bad news ready to go.
00;25;44;19 - 00;26;01;12
Unknown
Yeah. Everybody knows it. But if you're sitting out there and you feel like this is something that you're not prepared for, and a worst case scenario, don't hesitate to reach out to us again. Jacob's a phenomenal resource for this stuff. But I want to encourage you to drop us a line call the office. Hey, I want to talk to Jacob.
00;26;01;12 - 00;26;16;18
Unknown
Hey, I want to talk to one of the advisors on the team. We're happy to do that. That doesn't have cost for us to give you reviews for the record. So if you're sitting out there, that's one of the things that's really important is making sure all these, you know, quote unquote products, you're we'll are talking to each other.
00;26;16;20 - 00;26;39;03
Unknown
Because again, you don't know when that life events are going to take place. And getting a true comprehensive plan, like you said, talking to one another. But having that coach, having that plan in the corner again, even if you have an estate plan, it's not fun talking to these custodians about moving money. Yeah. And having somebody to kind of buffer all that chaos while you kind of deal with that grieving process is huge.
00;26;39;03 - 00;26;57;10
Unknown
What would you say kind of on the last topic, right. Proactive planning equals long term wins. Absolutely. What would be some things that you think of when when I say that that are worth hearing about if you're not doing this on a daily basis? Yeah, absolutely. I think the biggest thing I'm going to go back to is taxes.
00;26;57;10 - 00;27;19;19
Unknown
Yeah. I mean, planning sooner for taxes if you don't have a true tax plan, tax strategy going into retirement for retirement, over 40% of your total retirement savings will go to the government at some point in your life or your beneficiary's life. So thinking about tax is the forefront of everything, because you're going back to the comprehensive side.
00;27;19;25 - 00;27;40;18
Unknown
We're talking about taxes, but that should direct your income plan and your investments and also your estate plan. Everything truly working in unison for your best interest as efficiently as possible. There's a lot of people I've met with in my time doing this where I have my tax person, I have my investment person, I have my attorney over here.
00;27;40;20 - 00;27;59;18
Unknown
The thing is, are they talking to one another? Amen. Because if they are, unfortunately, you are the captain at the helm of the ship. You have to make sure everything's working best for you. So truly having that financial advisor that coach, that person in your corner to run the playbook for you and make sure everything is working best together is huge.
00;27;59;20 - 00;28;19;17
Unknown
But even going back a couple of years ago, tax laws change. Yeah. I had clients, we had the state tax exemption getting a lowered. Right. Because we were having that sunset until the one big beautiful bill. So we were doing some very, very interesting estate planning tactics to maximize that lifetime giving as much as possible, man.
00;28;19;17 - 00;28;35;09
Unknown
And that that's like a whole nother bag of worms. We could probably talk for 45 on that at least. But you know, it's crazy though, because, you know, as time's gone on, you know, you deal with these higher net worth families and you don't have to be high net worth, no right to, to actually have a savings on the tax piece.
00;28;35;11 - 00;28;55;16
Unknown
Anybody can, whether you got ten grand coming in a year or, ten, ten grand or 20 grand or 30 grand a month. Right. Like there's opportunity because when we talk about taxes just for you audience, you know, what Jacob's really talking about is there's non-qualified dollars, right? Your trust accounts or joint accounts or brokerage accounts. Then you got your IRA dollars, right?
00;28;55;18 - 00;29;12;00
Unknown
IRA, non-qualified money. These are the two biggest opportunities. Then you go deep in the rabbit hole. What am I paying in short term capital gains on the non-qualified money? What am I paying in long term? Is there any way we could flip it from short to long and maybe have a savings? Right. So there's so many great things that you can do.
00;29;12;00 - 00;29;40;21
Unknown
What investments are we using? Yeah. If you're great questions, if you're out there and you have a mutual fund sitting in our non-qualified account, we have a story for you. We have a story I got about 80 stories. Yeah. No kidding. But you know, these are things that you need to know about. And again, it's not really on the tax piece, but like, I had a meeting, not long ago, I was doing a second opinion, and, client has a substantial amount of money, and, I was like, dude, do you understand how you pay fees?
00;29;40;24 - 00;29;53;13
Unknown
No, I don't pay any fees. Well, I'm looking at the statement. I'm like, I know for a fact there's some fees coming out there, but I'm not going to guess. We call the institution. I was like, hey, just let me ask some questions. I want you to hear this. I'm not trying to, you know, create any issues.
00;29;53;16 - 00;30;06;27
Unknown
You just need to know. Because she said no, I've asked they said I don't pay any fees. I was like, okay, well, that's not 100% accurate, but let's get to the bottom of it. Maybe I'm wrong. Let's get it. I knew I wasn't, but I wasn't gonna, you know, be like, Dax, I'm on the business talking negative about people.
00;30;06;28 - 00;30;28;09
Unknown
No, but we call up, they find out they're paying $8.14 a share for this mutual fund. Yeah, and they got 17,000, 17,000 shares. My goodness, do that math. That's a heck of a payday for that advisor that's just shy of 140 grand a year. I had no idea it was there because it doesn't show up on the statement.
00;30;28;09 - 00;30;44;26
Unknown
Oh it doesn't. And that was something when you know we talk about proactive that's proactive. Because if I could say hey if you just get rid of this and buy this and you save 140 grand in fees a year, that's a home run. Yeah. Regardless of the market, does it go to the market? You guaranteed yourself a savings.
00;30;44;26 - 00;31;05;28
Unknown
So you know that proactive piece of educating yourself. Taxes. Right. Complicated. It's not fun to talk about taxes. Your fees you know are there any alternative investments they can get you a similar or the same type of return with lower risk. Right. These are the things that are fun to talk about. And to your point, being proactive about then allows you to be educated to make a good choice.
00;31;05;29 - 00;31;26;01
Unknown
Absolutely, Alex and I love what you hit on there with the investment side, because that's a whole conversation right there with fees and everything. There's so many different investments, and I truly believe that there's different strategies out there. But if you go to an advisor, most of us can do about the same, right? The real question is, is that the best investment for you out there?
00;31;26;03 - 00;31;43;20
Unknown
And really what are the fees? Because there are when you get into mutual funds, there are so many different share classes and they're all based on fees. Yeah, front load, back load on a share. And it really comes to a place. It's a good rule of thumb, and I like to work on generalities, but whenever I see mutual funds, I can usually guess.
00;31;43;20 - 00;32;01;12
Unknown
The advisor has been doing this for over 30 years and they're pushing 50. But it's also they were the advisors making backside a commission on this that the client has no idea about. Right. Well, he's charging me fee all the times. The client has no idea because it's not anywhere on the statement. As an advisor, we got to make a living doing this.
00;32;01;12 - 00;32;19;15
Unknown
Amen. But a client should know what they're paying someone. Transparence. Transparency through and through. And I've had a client work for me for the last six years. He came in two weeks ago and he's like, just curious, how much have I paid you in fees? Right. And it took me about five minutes to pull a full statement down to the penny of how much money Joe hears every month.
00;32;19;22 - 00;32;37;16
Unknown
I like that transparency and that's has to be the cornerstone of any relationship, whether that's with us, an advisor, CPA, attorney. Right. Trust, transparency have to be at the heart of it. And you have to make sure they have your best interests at heart. Are there fiduciary? Nine out of ten advisors say they're fiduciary, but who are they fiduciary too.
00;32;37;20 - 00;32;53;06
Unknown
Right. And that's a big question to ask because you want to make sure that they are your main priority. Hey man. The only person I have to answer to. Yeah. And I probably, you know, there's maybe some some clients watching right. Yeah. And and they know they're going to, you know, if there is if I have a client watching, you're probably gonna get a kick out of this.
00;32;53;06 - 00;33;14;18
Unknown
But it's the same thing out of my mouth every time. It's got to be fair and reasonable. You know, fees shouldn't be this weird conversation. No. It's like, to your point, like, listen, I got, I got I got three kids. I got a wife, right? We got another one on the way. Oh my goodness. Yeah. I'm like, listen, I got to provide I got to provide I, you know I, I wish I could do this out of the goodness of my heart.
00;33;14;20 - 00;33;31;21
Unknown
But it's also a very it should be an easy conversation. It should. And you can get this is how it's here. This is out here. This out here. Does that sound fair? Does that sound fair? And is there value. And there's always. And once you've been doing this long enough like we have, we I can't always tell clients the next dollar coming in isn't going to change my life.
00;33;31;21 - 00;33;47;12
Unknown
The next family that I add to my client list is going to change my life. I want to make sure there's a good fit. I want to look at my calendar and I see the people coming up. I'm looking forward to sitting down with, but you enjoy the relationship just as much as I do, right? And it is a partnership.
00;33;47;15 - 00;33;59;27
Unknown
Even kind of touching on the tax piece, the big question we get as well, how much do I do in a Roth conversion? And. Well, if you give me everything for this year, I can tell you, but I'm not going to know the number for next year or two years out. I'm not going to know because everything changes.
00;34;00;02 - 00;34;22;21
Unknown
But what I can tell you is we're going to walk beside each other and I'm going to help you through that process when the time comes or that's getting Social Security signing up for Medicare. There's so many potholes and landmines up ahead on the retirement journey. We've seen those because we've had the opportunity and honor to, help thousands of people through that journey.
00;34;22;23 - 00;34;42;09
Unknown
But unfortunately, those getting to retirement, this is their first time. Right? And this is the biggest decision you have to make in your lifetime. Yeah. And that's a great point, Jacob. And how I think about it is like I always say to people, you know, the one thing I have that you can't read in a book, you can't get in a designation or a credential in our business.
00;34;42;09 - 00;35;12;26
Unknown
Oh, I got the, you know, the series X, or I got the, you know, the CFA or whatever, the whatever the story. The one thing you can't get from a book or a test is experience. That's good. Yeah. Having perspective I, I've sat with families ten years ago. Watched their journey know what works doesn't work. So now when I sit down with a family and they have the same type of spending, same type of goals, same type of net worth, I have the experience and the perspective say, hey, I can tell you this is what works and this is what doesn't work, right.
00;35;12;26 - 00;35;24;16
Unknown
Based on that, that, that other family, you know what I mean? And that that's a that's a good perspective. Yeah. You're like, I have to check the math. But looking at your situation right now, I've seen, you know, this is going to work. I've seen it I know it's good. Right, right, right. And again, these are the things we should do.
00;35;24;16 - 00;35;40;29
Unknown
These are things we shouldn't do. And again, unfortunately, sometimes that comes from, hard lessons. Yes. And big wins, breaking some legs and ankles along the way. But yeah, you can start seeing some of these picture when you've done this long enough and just see how everything connects immediately. And that's just coming with an experienced advisor. Right.
00;35;40;29 - 00;36;00;07
Unknown
Like I'm a CFP immediately when I got the CFP, I wasn't there. But after doing this for as long as I have, it's just kind of natural at this point, which for the record, everybody is one of the hardest designations to get in our business. Come on, making boards and making moves. So anything else, you know, kind of wrapping things up.
00;36;00;09 - 00;36;17;10
Unknown
When we say the opportunity of cost, the opportunity cost of waiting, is there anything else that you think is is an important message to kind of send to the audience and the listeners? Yeah, absolutely. I think some people could possibly take this message as a motivation. Get up, go make a decision today. It doesn't have to be that large of a step.
00;36;17;10 - 00;36;39;17
Unknown
It could simply be being taken a step, giving us a call, giving you your financial professional call, asking them some of these questions that we prompted today right there. Like maybe I have never asked about estate planning with my advisor. Maybe I haven't asked about the tax consequences of retirement. What are these required minimum distributions? But as far as what steps you could take is maybe just get a second opinion.
00;36;39;17 - 00;36;57;07
Unknown
You've given over several thousand second opinions in our career combined. Yeah, absolutely. And along with the rest of the advisors on our team, and we would love to just walk you through what does an income plan look like? Look at let's look at taxes. How your investments what fees are you playing or paying. How's your estate planning looking?
00;36;57;07 - 00;37;24;24
Unknown
Just looking at all these different things. How do they connect to one another and making sure you have the best plan that's working for your best interests at the end of the day? Hey man, I love that. I appreciate that, Jacob. One thing I would add to that, because it just makes me think about it. It's like there's never really a good time to do this, but if you're not willing to spend two hours, you know, maybe, you know, our, our, our process is usually 2 to 3 appointments right before we kind of know what what what if it does or doesn't make sense and there's value, but, there's never a good
00;37;24;24 - 00;37;46;25
Unknown
time to do it, right? It's inconvenient. It's not always fun to talk about money and access all the time, especially if you're insecure about it, you know? And, I would just I would encourage people out there, if that's you. Also, for the record, this is my personal take, so don't let me connect it to Jake. But I'm sure he does agree with me because he and I, you know, we're in alignment is if somebody is not willing to have these conversations with you.
00;37;46;27 - 00;38;04;05
Unknown
Oh, we don't talk about taxes. That's probably the company they work for, not allowing to write to. There's some phenomenal advisors out there, but unfortunately they work for a company who doesn't allow them to talk about Social Security, doesn't allow them to talk about taxes, doesn't allow them to go into some of these details. That is also, again, an encouragement piece.
00;38;04;05 - 00;38;19;19
Unknown
If I was talking to my parents, I'd say, hey, it's probably not a bad idea to get a second opinion from somebody who's an independent fiduciary who can't talk about these topics because they all talk to each other. They all should be alignment. And that's how you get a comprehensive plan. That's how you get a comprehensive plan. I mean, I have a buddy.
00;38;19;19 - 00;38;34;07
Unknown
We went to college together. He's working at one of the big boxes. We always go golfing every single summer, and I got to give him credit for it because I'm like, oh, I bet you're talking a lot about Roth conversions, aren't you, Brandon? He's like, come on, you know, I can't talk about taxes, right? And he probably wants to die, you know?
00;38;34;07 - 00;38;49;28
Unknown
I mean, it's just he he only has so much control because he's not an independent fiduciary. Right, right. And they only they have so much control over and what he can do. And there's pros and cons. Absolutely. And everybody's got a different need a different. But anyway long story short Jake thank you for coming out today Marcus Ali.
00;38;49;28 - 00;39;06;15
Unknown
Yeah. No. Hey it's always a pleasure to see you. I appreciate you, taking time out of your busy schedule, man. It's always a pleasure. And, Yeah, I'm excited for this to go out. And, I'm excited, to get this information out there. And, thank you so much. Thank you. And you're always a pleasure to see, man.
00;39;06;18 - 00;39;27;01
Unknown
Wealth of information. And if you're down in, the Ohio, Miami area in the neck of the woods, we're Buckeyes fans there. Yeah, yeah. You know, we're we're the go blues. But, you know, I think you're the only Buckeye I really Buckeye advisor team. Yeah. Everyone else is either I mean that's a whole nother rivalry Michigan State versus Michigan.
00;39;27;02 - 00;39;47;09
Unknown
The new the Arizona guys. They're just a whole different breed themselves. Right. The old Sun Devils down there. So, anyway, thank you for joining us. Real World Retirement, the podcast. Hope you enjoyed it. If you did enjoy this information, please. We got a plethora of episodes that you can dive into with a bunch of different great financial advisors and experts.
00;39;47;11 - 00;40;06;16
Unknown
Subscribe. Make sure you're following us on social media again. My name is Alexander Bushman Jacob Black. Thank you, sir, for joining me today. Absolutely. And, we'll see you in the next episode. And God bless you.
00;40;06;18 - 00;40;10;17
Unknown
If you.
00;40;10;19 - 00;40;11;06
Unknown
Do 744.