1.20.23: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

1.20.23: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Producer:
Any examples used are for illustrative purposes only and do not take into account your particular investment objectives, financial situation or needs, and may not be suitable for all investors. It is not intended to predict the performance of any specific investment and is not a solicitation or recommendation of any investment strategy.

Producer:
Welcome to The Buckeye Advisor with your host, Woody Bowling. Woody is a fiduciary licensed financial advisor and Medicare expert who always places your needs first. Woody works hard each day to educate Americans like you on how to reach the financial freedom they've worked so hard for. And he can help you, too. So now let's start the show. Here's Woody Bowling.

Woody Bowling:
Good morning or good afternoon, depending on when you're listening. This is Woody Bowling and I am The Buckeye Advisor. And I want to welcome you to our radio program and podcast all rolled into one beautiful package for you, the listener, and we want to welcome you. It's the weekend of January 21st and 22nd, 2023. My how the time is flying already. And speaking of time flying, I would be remiss if I didn't make an immediate welcome to our co-host and producer, Mr. Matt McClure, once again coming live from Atlanta. Matt, good morning. How are you, sir?

Producer:
I am doing great. What do you hope you are as well? And I've had a great week. I know that the the year has gotten off to a busy start for you, but that's a good thing. It's a good kind of busy in this line of work.

Woody Bowling:
It is and very excited. We're definitely working with some some just wonderful people that are looking for some help from us in different ways and different capacities. You know, just building off of the things that we talk about in our program since we started it several months ago, very blessed to be meeting each week some wonderful folks that are just opening up to me about their concerns. And we're going to address some of their concerns during this show today that are shared by many, many other people that are listening. And if you're listening today on 94.5 FM, the answer. Dayton, thank you so much. We appreciate it. Also, we realize, Matt, that there are quite a few people that aren't able to catch it for whatever reason on the app or on the website. The answer Dayton dot com where you can listen live as well. But people just choose because it's not convenient on Saturday mornings at ten or Sunday mornings and nine they just want to listen to us at a different time. So they're listening via podcast and we appreciate that because we're on wherever podcasts are available.

Producer:
Yeah, absolutely are. I mean, we're talking Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart, all the biggies and some you've probably never even heard of before. We're on all of them. So wherever you get your podcasts, get us there, subscribe, reach out to us, leave us a rating. We would absolutely love that. And really, without you, the listeners, this show does not exist. So we love knowing that you're there, We love getting the feedback and it's a great thing. You can also get all of our past episodes at TheBuckeyeAdvisor.com that is The Buckeye Advisor and advisor with an or dot com or you can also give Woody a call and of course he's easy to find out there when you give him a ring at 9379746201 And I'm hoping, Woody, that by the time this hour is over with, the phone is just going to be ringing off the hook because we're going to share some great information with folks.

Woody Bowling:
I would say anything less than 12 and one half phone calls would be deemed a failure. But I'm just joking. Of course, we appreciate all the calls, all the comments on the show. I just want to start off by talking a little bit about the economy. We did get a little bit of news recently that inflation has slowed down just a little bit. The latest reading was 6.5%, down from a little over 7% in November. So that's a little bit of positive news. And we all like to hear positive news, right? We don't want to always hear negative things. On the other side of the coin, the market has been stabilizing itself a little bit. So we are hopeful that by the end of the first quarter, 2023, that the Fed is not only slowing down their rate increases, making them smaller, but also they will stop altogether and give some more time to really see if this inflation train that's been rolling now for over a year is slowing down a little bit and they can put the brakes on it. So we did get a little bit of information this week. Retail sales in December were down a little over 1%. For some people, that's a scary thing because they feel like consumers are not going to spend. New car sales were down about four and one half percent overall. Retail spending was down a little over one. So some people are concerned about that.

Woody Bowling:
But also on the other side, you know, retailers are so aggressive now, they start their Christmas sales in October. So some of those people that would spend some of the money in December, probably not guys like me because I wait till December no matter what. So most men do that. We contribute to December sales, I think, on the retail side. So, you know, you can look at it, both sides of the coin. Retail sales are still pretty robust overall despite inflation being at near record levels for the last several months. So there are some good things on the horizon. We do think it's going to slow down. We do think the Fed's going to slow down their rate increases and eventually stop those. And each week we'll continue to keep you up to date on those. And we're just going to tell you how it's going. And then we're going to tell you historically what happens when these things happen. And, you know, there's some good news around the corner. I think for many people that have money in the markets or a portion of their money in the market, so we've got some good things. I also want to invite everybody we're going to talk about fixed indexed annuities a little bit during the show today. Probably a couple of other ideas. And we have a book that we can get to our listeners for free with no cost.

Woody Bowling:
And you know, people say there's no free lunch mat. I would disagree because we'll send you the book annuity 360 for free. We'll ship it out. Just reach out to us on the website. Let us know you're looking for it and I will get it out and I'll send it priority mail. So you get it in 2 to 3 days. And we want people to be informed. And that's what I love about my clients and the people that I'm working with that are soon to be clients. They're informed and they know what's going on and they know why we're doing things. And that's a difference that I see that I don't always see when people come to me the first time because they don't have a clue of what they're in, number one and two, why are they in it? And three is it's still good for me today because I am at a different age and a different level of life than I was when this started, perhaps. So that's the cool thing. Again, it makes it all the more fun for me to really bring people around and up to date and educate people. And that's the goal of the show. Let's educate the public so they have choices that are not just mainstream. You got to have all your money in the stock market all the time. That's just not the case.

Producer:
Yeah, that's right. And, you know, I mean, with things as strange as they've been in the economy and you've been talking about this as we've started the show here and and, you know, going through sort of the latest economic news that there are options out there, there are directions out there that people can go. They just have to know they have to be educated. And that, as you say, is the purpose of the show. And this past year, I think 2022, more than any other year since 2008, has really brought into focus the need for a retirement plan. You've got to have you can't just go about it willy nilly here and and or just do a buy and hold, you know, where you just you buy things in the stock. You're like, oh, I've got an Apple computer, I'm going to buy some Apple stock and I'm just going to hold on to it and that's it. Well, you know, tech stocks last year and specifically about Apple, but tech stocks in general last year took a beating. So might not be such a great idea to just hold one particular stock in one particular sector. But you've got to know all of your different options out there. And that's really what today's show in particular is going to be about. The bulk of it, Woody, is the smart retirement plan and why people need a smart retirement plan. We're going to go through three different parts of it today. That's smart vision, smart inspection and smart planning. And when we get there here in just a few, I think it's really going to be great for the listeners to to get started on this journey with us down this this smart retirement plan road, because that's really what this episode is about, are those first steps that you've got to take.

Woody Bowling:
Yeah, I like the smart focus and I feel like our listeners are going to be a lot smarter by the time the show is over, and they'll be even smarter when they call me or reach out to me and decide to get together and chat. And remember, there's no obligation for any of that. So let's get this show kicked off, Matt, and talk about our financial wisdom Quote of the week.

Producer:
And now for some financial wisdom, it's time for the Quote of the Week.

Producer:
Yes, sir. You don't have to ask me twice to get the quote of the week in here. And this one is a good one this time around. I bet you've heard of this guy, Samuel Clemens. Well, you probably have heard his other name that he went by his pen name, Mark Twain. Mark Twain said this one time, As a matter of fact, it's funny, we just I didn't even plan that. We just actually kind of segued perfectly into it a moment ago. I guess I shouldn't have confessed there, but he just let people think that I know what I'm doing here. You look what we talked about.

Woody Bowling:
Just a second.

Producer:
Well, for just a very fleeting moment, But this quote from Mark Twain is all about getting started, right? So he said, the secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret to getting started is breaking your complex, overwhelming tasks into small, manageable tasks. And then starting on the first one, I think that's great. Just kind of get back to the to the basics there.

Woody Bowling:
Yeah. I mean, I don't care what you call them, Sam or Mark. He was a very sharp guy and I think in the financial world it couldn't apply anywhere in life as well as it does in the financial world. And dealing with things. I mean, there are so many questions. There's so many, especially with the Internet, there are so many positives with the Internet, but there's also a ton of negatives that go along with it. And people are inundated with pieces of information about retirement, about Medicare, about health insurance, about 41k plans and Roth IRAs and all that, and life insurance. You know, you got commercials for everything. So, you know, what I find people appreciate is when we break things down segment by segment, because each segment in their financial in their life overall can impact them financially, like health insurance or life insurance. And they can all tie together and really make a difference in the overall security that people can have in their life before retirement, at retirement, and also during retirement. So if you have that plan that we're going to talk about some of the things to get there, it all works together.

Woody Bowling:
And when you break it down task by task and tie it all together, it really makes the overall vision, you know, come to fruition for people. They can see it. Then they're like, Oh, that's how it all ties together. And now they feel so much more educated and they understand a lot of these topics that seem complicated. And some of them are, there's no doubt about it. But look, my job is to make these all these different topics. We need to bring them to a level where everybody's on the same page and they're understandable not speaking in jargon or gibberish and, you know, trade talk that people are going to be confused by. It may sound impressive sometimes, but look, when you hear these guys using terms that sound really fancy and like jargon, that's what it is. And, you know, So who are you trying to impress? Just speak it in a language that we all understand and let's get it together. Let's all get on the same page. But that's a great quote by Mark Twain this week. I love that.

Producer:
Yeah, that is a great one. And I love that about breaking it down in everyday language that people can understand to. I mean, I have worked for a long, long time in the news business and when it comes to writing for news, that's what I have always tried to concentrate on, is not using language that people don't understand. Like if if you're writing a story about, say, a robbery or something you don't use, like the police speak the police jargon, you know, like the perpetrator absconded with, you know, it's like, no, just that the guy the guy took the stuff in Iran, you know, it's like just language that people can understand. And this is also, I think, even more important because, as you say, complex stuff that a lot of times is difficult for people to understand. So if you break it down in that everyday language, really, really helpful. And I think to what some people just like to think that they know more than they know, I know I will confess as a guy, I am stubborn sometimes and I think that I know more than than anybody else a lot of the time. But people don't know more than their doctor. People don't know more than their their lawyer or their contractor for their home. If they're having some work done. So then why do they think that they know more than their financial advisor? You know, it's like just kind of want to want to go out on their own. But I don't think this is a scenario where they can do that.

Woody Bowling:
Yeah, it's an ego thing for a lot of people, and I would encourage people not to let their ego get in the way. And I respect people's research on investing that they do and their research on various topics that I work with. You know, I'm a fiduciary investment advisor representative on one side of my business, licensed with FINRA, and on the other side I'm a licensed insurance agent and I work with safe money products like fixed indexed annuities, Medicare, life insurance. So, look, you know, I go through ongoing continuing education every year and every two years. And so I stay on top of everything long. It doesn't mean I know it all. I'll be the first to admit there are sometimes I run into questions where I get stumped and guess what I do? I go find the answer. So but I will tell you this quickly. There is a funny commercial for a some kind of a plumbing company. I think in the greater Cincinnati Dayton area. Their line is we've been fixing what your husband messed up for the last 35 years or something to that effect. And their commercials are always funny to because they show the husband trying to fix something. He runs into a problem and his wife says, I'm calling so and so. He's like, Oh, great idea.

Producer:
That's that's great. Not that I've been there or anything, you know, that's that's fantastic. I love it. Well, so, so just like you want to call the plumber, you want to call Woody Bowling, you can actually do that at 9379746201. By the way, everybody. But what it can help you do, folks, is implement a smart retirement plan. So let's start down this road here, Woody. And that's really the first question that people have to ask themselves. Do you have a smart retirement plan?

Woody Bowling:
Yeah, I mean, I think I think the probably the thing that I run into often is people in their mind have won, but so many people fail to write it down and to get on the same page with their spouse or their significant other. So there's been an actual dialogue about it. You know, one person out of the two may have an idea, and in some cases I see one person of the two that says, I want nothing to do with devising that plan. I'll get behind it. But this person or this person is completely in charge of all that. So they put 100% of their faith in them. And that's not a bad thing necessarily. But getting a plan on paper is great. Sitting down and talking about budgeting, talking about exact points on a timeline, I think is a great idea. You know, 71% of Americans are very concerned about the impact of inflation on their retirement readiness. And they should be. And for for some people, this is the first time they've ever really heard of inflation. For some of us that are not in their twenties anymore, we know inflation has been around for a long time and it can come back and really, really cause problems. And so, you know, when people this year in 2022 and now in 2023, they had inflation at record levels. They had a stock market, including the bond market, off 20% roughly, and 33% for those tech stocks that are in the Nasdaq. So if you were in process in the last year, year and a half of retiring and you want like a lot of people do, they want to start pulling a.

Woody Bowling:
Regular amount of money out of their retirement accounts that for one K that they're ready to roll over what happens if their for one K is down 20% or 25% and then you start withdrawing from it right away as well to supplement the Social Security because most companies don't offer pensions anymore. It's a41k or nothing. So look, that's a very, very concerning proposition for people because it's the sequence of return risk that people run into that most people have never heard of it. But if you're in that time frame right now, in that retirement red zone where you're ready to do it or just did it or going to do it, you know, it's a crucial time to make the right decisions on do you retire? If so, how does the money get allocated? Do you? We believe in protecting a portion of the principle of people's retirement plans. Why? Because during downtimes and also you not only protect the principle, we can kick off a lifetime of income that's guaranteed that they won't outlive it. And that's all part of an important retirement plan. So this is a great, great topic. And, you know, it runs through people's minds, but getting people to put it into play and to get. Around to doing it. And really saying holding themselves and each other accountable for it. That's the challenge.

Producer:
Yeah, it's crazy, too. I think when you look at the numbers in some of these studies that we've seen, this Fidelity study from 2020 to retirement state of retirement planning, 71% of Americans very concerned about the impact of inflation. 31% don't know how to make sure their retirement savings keep up with inflation. I mean, it's really just bears out all the things that that you have been saying here. Survey from a couple of years back from Charles Schwab. 41% of people had to make changes to their 401. K because of the pandemic. Just 25% of respondents said that they had consulted a financial advisor or another financial professional. So getting a plan in place is not something that you can necessarily do by yourself. I mean, if you are a mathematician from Harvard and graduated with a doctorate in in whatever underwater basket weaving or something from Harvard, you you can can do it probably, maybe, perhaps. But always that outside set of eyes getting that on there is a smart, smart thing. So speaking of smart, let's run down kind of the basic points here of a smart retirement plan. What he.

Woody Bowling:
I mean, first of all, get create a budget. And that's another part of the puzzle that people don't they're not always really good at. And I'm going to say I've been guilty of that in the past. It's just kind of like, okay, we know we make this much. We know that we're spending about this much, and then people forget about these little and really what's happened over the last few years. You have subscriptions for everything. You know, it started with Netflix and now it might be a news channel or a news source. It might be, you know, something that you've upgraded from free to premium. And you forgot about that because once they get the credit card number or the bank account information. It's kind of gone. So, you know, I encourage people, make sure with a budget and look at all those subscriptions, all those different things. Look at now the cost of groceries and eggs have been in the news more than any 10% of our bird population. Chicken population has died evidently over the last few weeks and months. Eggs are now, in some places, 10 to $12 for one dozen. I got 18 of them for I think six and some change at Meyer last week, so that's not too bad. But of course, we do live in the Midwest. So, look, number two, save money. And we've talked about in the show, pay yourself first and let your money work for you and set yourself up on a systematic. Withdrawal from your paycheck for a41k plan. That is a huge, huge thing that people should never not do. And then also outside the 41k, you know, get rid of high interest rate debt first.

Woody Bowling:
You know, for me, most people it's okay to have a car payment and a house payment while they're working. But as you start cruising closer to retirement, you know you want to get the house paid off. Biggest, biggest source of financial debt is the house. So once that's paid off and then a car payment becomes probably not much of an issue for most folks because, look, cars don't last forever. We know that. So when you're in a smart retirement plan, you want that budget you want to save regularly, and that includes putting money into a savings account. Make sure you have that emergency fund built up of 4 to 6 months of expenses and then after that, start plugging it away into an investment account. You know, I have clients that have non IRA investment accounts and I do as well. And you know, systematically I contribute to that every month. So the good news is when the market's doing poorly, even though I don't like the overall balance being down, I'm buying new, new shares at lower prices. So when the market does go up, which hopefully we do see a good bounce back this year in the market, which we believe is going to happen, we do see that cost leveling out over time and that's important. So pay yourself, get the budget, pay yourself, avoid debt as much as you can. You know, we want people to invest wisely and you may be limited with your options, with your 401. K at work. But look, having that for one K contributed to it is a huge thing.

Producer:
Yeah, absolutely. What do you know? It's having that vehicle there and having an employer match for that 401. K I think is something that a lot of people really kind of will take for granted. It's free money. You might as well be taking that, you know, it's free money to you anyway. If your employer is going to invest in you, then yeah, absolutely take advantage of it. So we've got plenty more of the show to come. Of course, we're going to finish off the last couple of points here of the basics of the Smart retirement plan before we delve into the smart vision portion of the show. That is coming up right after the break. And of course, of course, the thing that we get the most calls about, I think, of anything that we do, the dad joke of the week, that's coming up right after this. Stick around. The Buckeye advisor is going to continue in a moment.

Producer:
Miss part of today's show. The Buckeye advisor is available wherever you listen to podcasts and online at TheBuckeyeAdvisor.com.

Producer:
Show us. Yes. Are you concerned about market volatility, inflation, rising taxes and how it all could affect your future in retirement? Then tune into the Buckeye Advisor with Woody Bowling to learn how you can reduce the taxes you pay before and during retirement. The Buckeye Advisor Saturdays at 10:00 AM and Sunday mornings at nine right here on 94.5 FM The Answer. Schedule a free no obligation consultation now at TheBuckeyeAdvisor.com.

Producer:
Welcome back. This is The Buckeye Advisor. I'm Matt McClure here alongside Woody Bowling, who is The Buckeye Advisor himself. I'm just some schmuck that he hangs around with sometimes, especially when we're on the radio or doing the podcast. But TheBuckeyeAdvisor.com is the website. If you'd like to find out more about anything we talk about on the show. You can also get a free copy of the Annuity 360 book using that website. Once again, it's The Buckeye Advisor that's advisor with an or dotcom. You can also call Woody at 9379746201 9379746201. And now, Woody, it is time for everybody's favorite part of the show.

Producer:
Oh, sure, you can handle ghost peppers. You choose scorpions like Skittles. But can you stomach the dad joke of the week?

Producer:
Yeah, that's it. What? He lay it on us. It's the dad joke of the week.

Woody Bowling:
All right, Matt, we're going to not waste any time. Why do you never see elephants hiding in trees?

Producer:
How do you never see elephants hiding? Andrew? Well, because they're really big, but I guess I'm sure there's a better answer than that. Why do you never see that elephants hiding in trees?

Woody Bowling:
Because they're really good at it. Oh, goodness. You have to roll your eyes on that one. You have to be able to stand these jokes and people come back from war each week. So I'm happy they do. But that's a good.

Producer:
It is a good one. You got to leave him wanting more. And honestly, that one actually took me about half a second to to get it. I'm like, wait a minute. Oh, that's what he's talking about. That's good stuff. See, this is why it's everybody's favorite part of the show. But the point of the show, of course, always is to educate, and that is to educate specifically about financial things. And today we are talking about this smart retirement plan, we're calling it. And so we're going through the basics here, Woody. And just sort of to recap for any listeners who might just be joining us for the second half of the show, it is kind of the basics here where create a budget, save regularly, avoid debt, invest wisely. Right? And so that's as far as we got in the first half. Let's pick it up here with the next point that we have. And that's one I think it gets overlooked sometimes, and that is stay insured.

Woody Bowling:
Yeah, staying insured is very important. I mean, I'm working with someone right now who had 34 years on the job is age 56 today. So basically been working for this company almost entirely since high school had risen through the ranks all of a sudden late november called in by h.r. Not the boss, but by air and said, hey, by the way, you're no longer working here literally 34 years later. So, you know, look, fortunately, I'm able to help this person with some short term health insurance so she's able to stay insured, and that's important. And so she's not Medicare age yet. She's going to eventually transition into a new job that will offer her a group health insurance program. But in the meanwhile, she's got pretty solid coverage for all the way up to one year with this program. So staying insured, whether it be health insurance through Medicare or through some type of short term plan, if you're not employed at the time you're transitioning between jobs or for self employed people. I've got some self employed clients that I cover through that health insurance plan as well. So we want people to life insurance. I've run into people over the years that sometimes they let their life insurance lapse. For some reason they just sometimes it's carelessness and sometimes it's I don't think I need it anymore or I can't afford it or they can really afford it. They just don't want to pay for it. So, you know, please think twice before you cancel a life insurance policy. And then we want to want to make sure long term care insurance is out there. It's not. It's almost like the bald eagle. So it's seldom spotted.

Woody Bowling:
You don't see it a lot. But there are some different ways to get some long term care coverage that would kick in for home health care and or nursing home coverage. Very, very important to for if you retire with a whole lot of assets and you may know somebody in a family or friend or a friend of a friend that spent two, three, four, five, six years in a nursing home. And you can see those lifetime of savings evaporate very quickly. And it's a sad thing to see. The next thing we want people to do is stay informed. And, you know, you can do that partially by listening to the Buckeye Advisors show each week. I mean, our goal is to talk about different subjects that we feel are impacting you as a listener so that you're the reason we're here. We want to educate you to give you some insights, some options, some unique opportunities that we bring up and show after show after show that you're not going to hear. And we're going to try to cut through all the clutter and cut through all the noise. And we're going to make it very simple to understand whether it be financial products that are new to you that you've never heard of. That might make a whole lot of sense in retirement or different other things that we can do. So, look, we want you to have a smart retirement plan, right, Matt? That's why we're here. And as a fiduciary advisor, it is my sole goal and responsibility. And the reason I sleep well every night besides some occasional snoring for my wife, that I do what I do.

Producer:
Oh, no, that's that's great. Yeah. I get told that I snore a little bit on occasion myself, and it's not fun. At least I'm not like my mom used to be before she got her CPAP. I'll just say that. It was almost like there was a freight train in the next room when I was a kid, but.

Woody Bowling:
You could see the curtains actually going to her nose as you breeze in. She's so loud and strong. The curtains are moving.

Producer:
Just inhaling them. And she wouldn't mind me telling that story either because she laughs about it now, because she doesn't do it anymore. She just looks a little like Darth Vader when she's asleep, but she doesn't do the snoring thing anymore. But so what? What we're going to do now is kind of break it down. You know, we went through the basics here and now what we're going to do is sort of break it down in depth for the listeners and talk about a couple of different aspects of a smart retirement plan. And the first one of those aspects, the first step really is a smart vision and really determining what your retirement is going to look like in the future. Let's take a listen. I actually put together a piece on this just sort of summarizing, given a little a little bit of a teaser here of what we're going to talk about just a couple of minutes. Let's listen to this. And we will continue talking about smart vision on the other side. Do you have a vision for what you want your retirement to look like? I'm Matt McClure with the Retirement Radio Network. Powered by a life planning for retirement can be overwhelming. A survey from Gobankingrates shows that one third of Americans don't think they know enough about retirement. And they're probably right. So if you fall into that category, how do you know where to begin? Well, you've got to know where you want to go before you start planning how to get there. That's where having a smart vision for your retirement comes in. Whether you want to be a jet setter during your retirement years. Want to take it easy in a quiet cabin in the woods or start a new adventure by opening your own business, you should set that goal and keep it in mind throughout your working years, retirement expert Dean Waguespack said during a recent TEDx talk.

Woody Bowling:
I want to challenge all of.

Producer:
Us to redefine retirement away from.

Woody Bowling:
Depart.

Producer:
Remove withdrawal to a new definition, a blending of pay.

Woody Bowling:
Passion and purpose.

Producer:
Still, retirement looks different for everyone. Sit down with your spouse and talk about your retirement goals. That will make it easier to determine how fiscally responsible you need to be now and how much income you'll need to make it happen after you retire. That's right, I said. Income. More and more retirees are finding that cash flow is more important than one big nest egg number.

Woody Bowling:
That's when you want to say, Hey, listen, I want to start thinking about all of this accumulation that I've done through these decades of working. How do I begin to.

Producer:
Think about turning.

Woody Bowling:
What I've saved and what I've accumulated into paychecks after I retire?

Producer:
That's Lee Baker, president of Apex Financial Services, speaking to CNBC. He says annuities are a great option for most retirees to generate an income you can never outlive. That's especially important since life expectancy has grown over the years. So you'll need to plan for a longer period of time than you may think. So do you have a smart vision for your retirement years? That's a key question to consider as you start planning how to get there with the retirement radio network powered by a married life. I'm Matt McClure.

Producer:
You're listening to The Buckeye Advisor to Schedule your free No obligation consultation with Woody. Visit TheBuckeyeAdvisor.com.

Producer:
And so there you go, Woody. I mean, I look at smart vision, really determining what you want your your future to look like. And then you can start plotting out the road to to get there. Right? It's not like you just want to go you know, if you've ever if you've ever gone somewhere and the GPS goes out or if you don't have a map or whatever, and you kind of, okay, what's my destination? I think I kind of know what it where it lies in the grand scheme of things. But how in the world do I get there and all that? You've got to know where you want to go before you can start planning how to get there.

Woody Bowling:
Yeah, you do. First of all, Matt, I want to throw some kudos your way for your vignettes and and the other parts of our show that are so awesome that you do such a fantastic job, your voice, your creativity, all of that. You know, you bring a lot to the show and I certainly appreciate it. I know you work with some other advisors as well, and I'm sure they feel the same way. So thank you for all you do there. Appreciate it very much. But I. Look, planning is what it's all about. And, you know, we saw in a study that 37% of Americans feel they need more education on retirement planning. I am actually underwhelmed by that number. That seems it should be double that. In reality, 52% of Americans wish they had more education on how to invest. Another statistic that I think is probably a little bit on the light side, and so I run into people. They've had money and for one case they couldn't tell you exactly why they're in it, why they were in there when they started it. But they've been in it for 15, 20, 25 years and they really haven't made adjustments. So people need more education. About 401 K selections. I'm happy to help people with that.

Woody Bowling:
No charge different things and they need to understand that there's more than one way to skin the proverbial cat when it comes to investing and retirement. And, you know, we really want people to sit down with family members. You know, if if you're a widow or widower, sit down with your kids, if you're a couple, sit down with your significant other, your spouse, talk about Social Security, talk about your vision for retirement, where do you see yourself? Are you going to travel? Do you have kids out of state, grandkids out of state that are going to want you to come see them more often? So studies really show Mat, that people are a lot more active in the first five years of retirement than they tend to be later because it's that effect of freedom from the job. So whether it's age 65 or 66, 67, 68, whatever it is, 70, that first five years is a very important period because people tend to be more active spending more money, including pulling more money out of their retirement plans. And it makes sense, right, Because you now have the time to pursue travel seeing kids. Grant. States playing a lot more golf. I know I wouldn't mind playing a little bit more golf, but in our climate, it's not conducive right now.

Woody Bowling:
During the month of January. So talk about Social Security and, you know, if people don't have an account to Social Security, stop sending these statements. They used to send them annually on paper. They stopped a few years ago. So if you need to set up an account with SSE, a dot gov, set up a username and password you can jump on, They'll give you a very quick, easy to read snapshot of your earnings history with Social Security, which is going to be based on your highest 35 years of earnings. Learn how much you can get at age 62, which usually I don't recommend people start taking then if they can avoid it 65 their full retirement age, which will be somewhere between 66 and 67, and also how much you'll be rewarded if you can wait till age 70 to start. So open that account. Check your Social Security awards, What they look like. Talk about all those things. And, you know, another thing we talk about is taxes. You know, where do you think taxes are going up, Matt? Do you think they're going up or down over the next few years? What's your educated opinion?

Producer:
My educated opinion is that they are going to have to go up at some point because, I mean, you know, the national debt is not just going to go away by, you know, the you know, by magic or something. It's not like you're going to go to Vegas and go see Penn and Teller or something, and they're going to be like, abracadabra, national debt is gone. It doesn't quite work that way.

Woody Bowling:
Wish it did. That'd be fun. That'd be a fun show to see.

Producer:
There'd be a lot be a lot of fun.

Woody Bowling:
I would pay for that. So, you know, it's important. Taxes there are always going to be in the equation. We talked about we talked about Roth IRAs and, you know. Indexed universal life insurance where you can get potential tax free withdrawals down the road after over funding a policy for a few years. It's another tax benefited way to get your income. And a Roth IRA is another great way to do that your your growth on your account as well as the distributions after five years in that Roth they are no longer taxable at all so lots of different ways. Look at Medicare. I deal with a lot of folks that are on Medicare and some that are not. And, you know, I love helping people on both sides of the Medicare age group. So, you know, make sure I help people find the right plans. It's very important. I'm an expert in that area. I can explain the differences between the companies. And I love that education process, which is all about what we do here on the show. So it's fun to do that in person with people, to see the look on their faces when you know they really understand, Hey, it's not as complicated as I thought it was going to be.

Woody Bowling:
And then the last but not least, we want people to think about your life expectancy. And thanks to medical, the medical ingenuity, I mean, all the advancements that have been made in medicine over the last 25, 30 years, it's increased our life expectancy tremendously across the board. So that's another thing. People when they retire, if you retire at age 65, you might live 20, 25 years. And people don't think of that. They think, well, if I can make it to 80, I'm good to go. Well, guess what? More people are living to be 85, 90 and even 95 than ever before. So when you have a professional that's involved like myself to help, you know, talk about those ideas and those projections of how long you might need income, how long you want your money to last, those are very important conversations to have. And we want to help people and we want to be part of those conversations.

Producer:
Yeah, absolutely. And so that all you know is what goes into this smart vision concept, right? I mean, talking about all of those things with your loved ones, making sure that you are on the same page and making sure that you know where you want to go in retirement. So that's like, you know, you got out your GPS, It's it's working. You know, it's not it hasn't gone out. You got out the GPS you've put in your destination. Okay. So now is the time for you to start getting there and really kind of the the next step in this would be a smart inspection, we're calling it here, making the most of your current situation. What do we mean by that, Woody?

Woody Bowling:
Well, good question. And I hopefully I've got a good answer for you. Ultimately, you can have a vision, but if you don't really know where you're at today, it makes it hard. So all of the first part that we just talked about, you really need to understand thoroughly where you're at today. What kind of portfolio do you have currently? Do you have only mutual funds that are invested in certain segments, large cap, large cap companies, larger companies, mid cap, small caps, all those different things that are involved in mutual funds. As Matt mentioned earlier in the show, I've run into people sometimes and they have two or three companies that they are enamored with stocks of the individual stocks of the company. It could be GE, it could be GM back in the day. Of course, it could be Duke Energy, it could be Apple. As you mentioned earlier in the show, which got creamed last year along with Netflix and Mehta, which is Facebook and Instagram. So, look, you can have an affinity for certain companies, but that may not mean that in the overall. Scheme of things. When you're balancing all your risk and evaluating how you're going to get to your ultimate goal in retirement, it might not make the most sense to hold on to all of those two or three or four or five different companies might be best to cut it down to a couple of them and also reduce the risk by not owning so many shares of that company. So I've got some clients and they have their own fund money set aside where they trade stocks, they trade their own individual stuff and they've got the account set up. I have nothing to do with it and that's the way I want it. So I just tell them, be prepared.

Woody Bowling:
Just like we've talked about cryptocurrency before on the show, only play with the amount that you can afford to lose. And if you lose it, just understand that that was the worst case scenario. So we really want people to Portfolio analysis is super important. We want to know where you're at. I can help you do that. I can help you evaluate fees. We have a whole team of people that will run you through our software and we'll tell you exactly where you're at. We also talked a minute ago about number two plan to your 95. That sounds crazy, doesn't it? But people need to do that. You need to think about worst case scenario. What if I live to age 95? So think about that. And then also the final thing, I mentioned it a little bit ago about Social Security. And really I love having that conversation with people because a lot of people, if they're healthy, they want to keep working maybe full time, maybe scaling it back to part time, maybe they want to do their own thing. It's a consulting kind of a thing. I've got some clients that do that, which is fun and they get to be active and they consult and they set their own schedule and they absolutely love that idea. So everybody's situation is different, everybody's got a different amount of money, everybody needs a different amount of money in retirement. So that's why I enjoy working with people and the different scenarios that I run into. And it's great being able to customize and tailor a solution to each person or people in that household. So that's the fun part about what I do. And you got to have that smart inspection to get you on your way into the smart planning process.

Producer:
Yeah, absolutely. And a great place to get started with that is at TheBuckeyeAdvisor.com or by calling Woody Bowling at 9379746201. Well what he just did a little bit less than 5 minutes left in the show I know it's it's come and gone really just about here as as quickly as the shows tend to do when we are getting together here. But just quickly here in the next couple of minutes before we close out the show, let's talk about the smart planning aspect of this. This is sort of where the rubber meets the road, right? You know what? You know where you want to go. You've got the smart vision. You've got that smart inspection so you know where you are. Now it's time to start plotting that course to get from point A to point B.

Woody Bowling:
It is. And as you were talking, it just brought to mind something that I've said before, and I say it to people all the time, no question that people have any of our listeners have a question about any of the topics we discussed. No question is a dumb one. The only dumb question is one that's not ask, I think. And. Believe me, there's no question that's too elementary or too complex to ask, because, look, we're talking about people's lifetime of accomplishments, lifetime of savings and what they've worked hard for for 50, 60 years. Plus what they're going to be doing for the next ten, 15, 20, 25 years. So it's an important topic and all these questions are important. You know, when you look at what's the average retirement age, you know, when should you claim Social Security? You know, those those two things tie together so closely. And, you know, it goes back to every situation's unique. Some people don't think they're in a position to retire as early as they really can. I've run into a couple of people like that recently. They were thinking, I'm going to have to go to 68 or 70. And then when we look at the numbers and we look at potentially protecting some of their retirement assets with a fixed indexed annuity and we could produce some lifetime income from that to supplement their Social Security, they actually can do it earlier if they want. They don't have to wait. So when should you get Social Security once you retire? Very similar interrelated pieces of the puzzle.

Woody Bowling:
What is Social Security runs out of money? Big concern. It's been in the news lately. They're saying 2034 is going to be right now kind of the magical year to be concerned if they don't do something in the meanwhile. So for the next 11 years, will they continue to kick that can down the road or will they actually take some action on it? My belief is another four or five years they're going to take action on it. Both parties will agree that they're going to have to do some more funding for Social Security to shore up that trust fund. So, you know, Matt, I can encourage people I love working with people. I love all the different interactions in the scenarios. It's very, very enjoyable. And I think people will enjoy the work, will enjoy working with me. Not everybody, you know, has been a great fit and we run into that sometimes because I want to make sure in that first meeting that we're on the same page that we kind of have the same goals and that they're willing to get feedback from me and I'm willing to get feedback from them. And then if it's a good fit, then we'll have a meeting number two and possibly number three, and then we'll get things implemented. So we make it painless. We like to have some fun and laughs along the way, but most of all, we want to do a great job with people and protecting them and their assets.

Producer:
Yeah, and that's really what it is all about. And like you say, it's when people reach out to you initially, you know, listeners of the show can get this full retirement plan consultation that is free and there's no obligation. And that's exactly what you just alluded to there. What if it doesn't work out? It doesn't work out after that initial conversation, Right. If you don't mesh, if you don't feel like it's a mutual mutually beneficial thing, then yeah, you don't have to go forward. It's not something that that Woody Bowling is going to force you into, folks. It's not he's not that kind of guy. Well, Woody, that is just about time for us to call it a day here on the Buckeye Advisor this time around. As always, I have enjoyed it, sir. I hope you have as well. And we'll talk again next week.

Woody Bowling:
Matt, it's been a pleasure. Absolutely flew by. As always, I want to wish all of our listeners out there a fantastic and blessed weekend and thank you for listening and we look to see and hear everyone back again next week.

Producer:
Thanks for listening to The Buckeye Advisor. You deserve to work with an experienced and licensed expert who will strategically work to protect and grow your hard-earned assets to schedule your free no-obligation consultation with Woody, visit TheBuckeyeAdvisor.com or pick up the phone and call 937 974 6201

Producer:
Investment Advisory Services offer through Brookstone Capital Management LLC BCM registered Investment Advisor BCM and the Buckeye Advisor are independent of each other. Insurance products and services are not offered through BCM, but are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed agents. Investments involve risk and, unless otherwise stated are not guaranteed. Past performance cannot be used as an indicator to determine future results.

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